An employer does not have the right to withhold pay while he checks whether an employee is genuinely sick.
An employee has the right to receive his wages without any unauthorised deductions. It has been held that the non-payment of wages is the same as a 100% deduction and is therefore covered by this law.
In the case, a worker of an airline company had been off sick for some time due to long-term health problems. She said she was fit to return to work on 1 February 1999, and produced a medical certificate to that effect. The company was concerned about the matter and decided to make her return conditional on her being examined by the company’s own doctor. This happened six weeks later, when the doctor confirmed that she was fit. She was not paid for these six weeks.
The contract of employment required an employee to be paid for 26 weeks if unable to work for health reasons. She maintained that, having returned to work, she was entitled to be paid for those six weeks. The fact that the company wished her to be examined was not a health reason. The tribunal agreed. There was no specific term in her contract of employment allowing a deduction from or non-payment of wages under such circumstances.
Beveridge v KLM UK Ltd. EAT [2000]
[2000]