Can an employer accept overseas sick notes?

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has restricted travel both within and outside of the UK, many employees have travelled abroad to visit family, either for the festive celebrations or for longer periods. 

Whilst this creates a range of potential issues, a common question is what happens if your employee is sick and provides you with a foreign medical certificate as evidence?

Employers are entitled to request “reasonable evidence” of incapacity after the first seven days of sickness absence. What amounts to reasonable evidence is for the employer to determine. If your employee is abroad when they fall ill a foreign medical certificate should be treated as legitimate unless you have reason to believe that the employee was not genuinely sick.

What you should do if you are provided with a foreign medical certificate

If you are provided with a foreign medical certificate, the first step is to consider its legitimacy but do not assume it is not genuine without reasonable belief. If you need to, you should get the certificate translated. If you are unsure, you can at least check if the issuer exists online. If you have evidence to suggest that the employee’s sickness is not genuine (for example, there are pictures on social media) carry out a thorough investigation before taking formal action.

Employee unable to return to the UK due to sickness?

If your employee is unable to return to the UK due to their sickness, you will need to consider how their sickness absence will be managed. 

Employees who fall sick abroad are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). This is also the case if your employee is on holiday and falls ill, or where an employee is already ill at the start of their pre-booked annual leave. In these circumstances, employees can request to reschedule their holiday and receive SSP instead, utilising their holiday entitlement elsewhere in the holiday year.

If you would like advice on sickness absence in employment law, please contact me on 01206 217301 or email Sarah.Shah@birkettlong.co.uk.