Running a business in the UK comes with a wide range of legal obligations, including health and safety and employment law. Depending on the scale of your business, the job of ensuring legal compliance with UK employment law may fall to you as the business owner. Alternatively, you may delegate this to a human resources (HR) specialist or team. One of the key tasks that must be understood and managed if you have employees is ‘leave of absence’.
In this article, we will explain all you need to know about leave of absence in the UK, including what absence of leave is, how to manage leave and absence, short-term time off, long-term leave of absence, and unpaid leave.
Understanding Absence Management
Managing the leave of absence laws in the UK, also known as absence management, is a key aspect of employing staff in the UK. This ensures that you have a record of the absences of each member of staff. Moreover, you can be confident that you are applying the law correctly in each case. Many businesses utilise dedicated HR and payroll software to accurately manage staff absences and maintain records to demonstrate compliance with relevant laws.
Understanding Absence Management and the Law in the UK
As an employer in the UK, there are several laws that you must abide by when it comes to managing the absence of your staff, including:
- The Employment Rights Act 1996
- The Equality Act 2010
- The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, and
- The Working Time Regulations.
Managing Absence at Work
Absence management is more than just keeping records of when a person is absent and how much they get paid. Moreover, you will need to ensure that you are considering all related areas of law when it comes to absence. For example, the working time regulations determine how long staff can work, while the Equality Act sets out how staff must be treated equally. In particular, a member of staff with a disability may need additional time off work. Ultimately, these are the responsibilities you have to manage when it comes to an employee’s leave of absence.
What are the Legitimate Reasons for Leave of Absence?
Employees may need to take a leave of absence for a number of valid reasons, including
- To attend a medical appointment
- Sudden illness
- Bereavement of an immediate family member (Carer’s leave up to one week unpaid per 12 months under the Carer’s Leave Act 2023)
- An emergency
- Personal problems
- Maternity leave/paternity leave
- Caring for an immediate family member (e.g. a child), and
- To attend jury service.
These legitimate reasons for leave of absence should be made clear within the employment contract and an HR handbook.
Long-Term Leave of Absence
An employee may need to take a long-term leave of absence (or extended leave of absence). In general, long-term leave of absence refers to absences of more than 4 weeks. Specifically, reasons for long-term leave of absence may include:
- Sabbaticals
- Career breaks
- Long-term physical or mental illness
Furthermore, for employers, long-term leave of absence can place a considerable amount of pressure on existing team members, especially when it is unplanned. For this reason, employers in the UK put in place clear policies and procedures regarding long-term leave of absence, setting out:
- What is meant by long-term leave of absence
- Expectations of managers and employees
- How and when medical advice may be needed
- Pay entitlement for long-term sickness
- The process for handling long-term absences, including formal review meetings
- How you as an employer will support a return to work
- Return to work process
Measuring Lost Time
Time lost due to absence can place considerable financial and operational strain on businesses. For this reason, we always recommend that you implement a process for measuring and monitoring lost time due to absences. This will enable your business to better understand any absence patterns and the possible causes. Moreover, it may be that certain team members are experiencing environmental or managerial issues, which means they need to take additional time off. By reviewing time lost due to absence and resolving any issues, you can reduce the financial and operational impact on your business. Furthermore, you can measure lost time in a number of ways, including measuring:
- % of possible working time lost to absence
- The average number of absences per employee, and
- An individual’s persistent short-term absence – this is known as the Bradford Formula, which is used in HR teams to measure staff absenteeism.
Role of the Absence Policy
HR absence policies set out an organisation’s rules, processes, and approach to workplace absence. It should cover planned, unplanned, unauthorised sickness, parental and maternity leave, and extended leave of absence. For example, a sickness absence policy may include a sickness absence notification process, and any documents employees should provide when they are off sick.
The purpose of providing an absence policy is to make your business’s approach to absence as clear and transparent as possible to everyone.
Short-Term Time Off (STO)
Short-term absence typically refers to absences from work of up to 5 days. Additionally, it can include planned time off (e.g. to attend a GP appointment or dentist) or unplanned time off (e.g. child illness or emergencies). Moreover, persistent short-term absences may indicate that a problem needs to be addressed. For example, it may be that the member of staff is having problems at home, within their job, or with their health. By putting in place a clear policy on STO, you can ensure that the rules regarding pay, and process are clear.
In some cases, it may be necessary to consider disciplinary procedures for unacceptable and repeated absences from work. However, before taking this type of action, it is essential to understand the underlying cause of the absences and provide support where possible and appropriate. Furthermore, this may require additional information, such as medical advice. Importantly, do not assume that an employee is taking time off work repeatedly for non-genuine reasons.
Unauthorised Absences from Work
According to ACAS, unauthorised absence occurs when an employee does not turn up for work and they either:
- Do not have permission from their employer beforehand, or
- Do not follow the HR absence policy for reporting an unexpected absence
You can handle the lateness in the same way as unauthorised absences from work. Just because a member of staff is absent without leave (AWOL) does not mean there is an automatic reason to consider disciplinary procedures. It is important to check in the first instance that the individual is safe and well by:
- Contacting the employee using their work contact details
- Contacting them using their personal contact details
- Getting in contact with their emergency contact
Again, it is advisable to include unauthorised absences within the absence policy / HR handbook.
What is Unpaid Leave?
Unpaid leave means that an employee does not need to be paid for the time they take off. The leave might be unpaid if the absence is not covered by statutory sickness leave, paid annual leave, or other permitted time off, such as bereavement, maternity, or paternity leave.
How Many Absences Are Allowed at Work in the UK?
UK law sets no fixed limit on absences. Employers define ‘reasonable’ time off in their own policies. For sickness, employees can self-certify up to seven days; after that, they must provide a fit note. Similarly, time off for dependents is not subject to a set day count and is tailored to each case’s specific needs.
Conclusion
Handling staff leave starts with clear rules, accurate records and fair treatment. First, set out who qualifies for time off and keep absence logs up to date. Then, spell out steps for both short breaks and longer leave so everyone knows what to expect.At A Y & J Solicitors, we’ve tackled hundreds of sponsor licence compliance issues and achieved more than 5,000 successful immigration and visa outcomes. We draw on over 15 years of UK immigration law experience. Plus, The Legal 500 ranks us among the best—a mark of our dedication and results. If you need straightforward advice on absence policies or sponsor-licence duties, contact our team. We’ll walk you through every step.
