How do I handle sickness absence and a disciplinary problem?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same position, with no difference — employment law is reserved and the Acas Code applies. Northern Ireland: covered, and different on discipline — the Acas Code does not apply; Northern Ireland has its own code, a statutory dismissal procedure Great Britain no longer has, and different tribunal adjustment powers, all set out below. Sick pay is the same across all three.

Sickness absence: sick pay changed in April 2026, and older budgets are wrong

Sickness absence now costs more than older budgets assume. Statutory sick pay is payable from the first day to every employee, in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This step is for the manager and the trustees. It applies once someone is employed — the paperwork for that is on make the offer, check the right to work, give the statement. The discipline rules later on differ in Northern Ireland.

Two cost-control features that every sick pay template assumed disappeared on the same day, 6 April 2026:

• No waiting days. Statutory sick pay is payable from the first day of sickness.
• No lower earnings limit. Every employee is eligible, whatever they earn.

Statutory sick pay is the legal minimum an employer pays an employee who is off sick: £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks. The charity cannot recover it from the government; the scheme that once let employers recover some of it has been revoked in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

These changes are in force, not pending. A made statutory instrument, SI 2026/373, brought sections 10 to 13 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 into force on that day. Sections 12 and 13 make the parallel changes to Northern Ireland’s own social security legislation, so they apply there too. A charity budgeting from a template written before April 2026 has under-provided. The cash effect belongs in the charity’s cashflow forecast.

An absence policy that reflects the current sick pay position can be adopted now. It does not need to wait for the advice this page recommends on discipline.

The Acas Code is statutory, not a recommendation

Acas is known for advice, and the Code sits on its website, so it is easy to treat as optional guidance. It is not.

The Acas Code is a statutory Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. It was issued under section 199 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The current Code came into effect on 11 March 2015 and replaced the 2009 Code.

What that means in practice:

• A tribunal must take it into account in any case to which it applies.
• Failing to follow it does not, on its own, make you liable. The Code’s foreword says so. But a tribunal will judge your process against it.
• On some claims, it can change the award. That power is in the statute, not in the Code, and it is narrower than usually stated. The section on the tribunal’s power to adjust an award explains how.

The Code covers disciplinary situations — misconduct and poor performance — and grievances. Acas is consulting on a draft replacement Code. Until a new Code is approved and laid before Parliament, the current one applies. Check Acas’s site for the current edition before you adopt a procedure.

The sequence the Code sets out

The Code sets out five stages for a disciplinary situation, in paragraphs 5 to 29:

1. Establish the facts. Investigate before anything else. Where practicable, different people should investigate and hear the case.
2. Inform the employee. Tell them in writing what the case is, what the evidence is, when and where the meeting will be, and that they may be accompanied.
3. Hold a meeting. The employee can respond, present evidence and call witnesses.
4. Decide, and say so in writing. The action should be proportionate. Warnings are graded, first and then final. Gross misconduct can justify dismissal without notice — but only after a fair process.
5. Allow an appeal. It should be heard without unreasonable delay, ideally by a manager not involved before.

One part of this is statutory in its own right. The employee has a right to be accompanied at any meeting that could lead to a warning or other disciplinary action. The companion can be a fellow worker or a trade union representative or official. The right also covers a hearing that could confirm a warning or other action, which includes an appeal.

The right of appeal itself comes from the Code, not from a statute, in Great Britain. The five-stage shape as a whole is Code guidance that a tribunal must consider, not a separate statutory procedure in Great Britain.

A small charity rarely has two separate people to investigate and to hear. The Code asks for that only where practicable. Where it is not, note why.

One paragraph is worth knowing on its own. Paragraph 31 of the Code, verbatim: “If an employee is charged with, or convicted of a criminal offence this is not normally in itself reason for disciplinary action”.

The tribunal’s power to adjust an award — what it is, and what it is not

This is the part of the subject most often misstated.

It is in the statute, not the Code. The power is in section 207A of the 1992 Act. The Code itself contains no percentage.

It is not general. Section 207A applies only to proceedings “relating to a claim by an employee under any of the jurisdictions listed in Schedule A2”. Unfair dismissal is one of those jurisdictions. Many claims are not. “A tribunal can add a percentage to any award” is wrong.

It runs both ways, up to a cap. Where an employer has unreasonably failed to follow the Code, the tribunal may increase the award by up to 25 per cent. Where the employee has unreasonably failed to follow it, the tribunal may reduce the award by up to the same amount.

It is discretionary. The tribunal adjusts only “if it considers it just and equitable … to do so”. For a small charity, though, the figure is large enough to decide whether a claim is worth bringing.

What the Code does not cover

The Code’s own scope ends where two common kinds of departure begin. Verbatim:

“The Code does not apply to dismissals due to redundancy or the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts on their expiry.”

So do not run a disciplinary procedure when a post ends because its funding has gone. That ending has its own fairness requirements, and they come from the unfair dismissal rules and the common law, not from the Code. They are set out in what you owe the post-holder when a grant ends.

Northern Ireland does not use the Acas Code

This is the sharpest difference on the page. In Northern Ireland three separate instruments apply, and none of them is the Acas Code.

1. The Labour Relations Agency’s Code. Northern Ireland’s Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures took effect on 3 April 2011. In 2011 Northern Ireland moved grievances from a statutory procedure to this Code. It left the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure in place.

The Code’s status and scope are established. Its detailed procedural sections were not transcribed for this page. The LRA noted the Code was under review after a 2013 appeal case. No reissue was found, so check the LRA’s site for a newer edition before you rely on it.

2. A statutory three-step procedure. Great Britain repealed its statutory dismissal procedure in 2009. Northern Ireland kept its own, in Schedule 1 Part I of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003, and it is in force. Before dismissal or disciplinary action:

• Step 1. Set out in writing what the employee is alleged to have done, or the circumstances, send it to them, and invite them to a meeting.
• Step 2. Hold the meeting before taking any action other than suspension. Explain the allegation and give the employee a reasonable chance to respond. Afterwards, tell them the decision and their right to appeal.
• Step 3. If they appeal, invite them to a further meeting, and afterwards tell them the final decision.

A shorter, modified procedure applies to summary dismissal for gross misconduct discovered after the event.

The consequence of skipping it is severe. Under Article 130A of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, a dismissal is automatically unfair if two conditions are met. The procedure was not completed. And that is wholly or mainly the employer’s fault.

Separately, Article 17 of the 2003 Order applies to claims under the jurisdictions listed in its Schedule 2. Where the procedure was not completed, it requires the tribunal to adjust the award, upwards or downwards depending on whose failure it was. The minimum adjustment is mandatory unless there are “exceptional circumstances which would make a reduction or increase of that percentage unjust or inequitable”. Anything above it, up to a statutory maximum, is at the tribunal’s discretion.

3. A separate, larger Code adjustment. Article 90AA of the Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 covers matters outside the statutory procedure. A grievance is one example. Whether a particular disciplinary step short of dismissal falls inside or outside the statutory procedure is the classification question below. For matters outside it, it lets a tribunal adjust an award for unreasonable failure to follow a relevant Code. Its ceiling is double the Great Britain cap under section 207A.

Do not merge the two adjustments. Article 17 attaches to the statutory procedure. Article 90AA attaches to matters outside it. Which one bites in a particular case is a question of classification that the statute does not settle in the abstract.

The classification question is the practical reason this page tells a Northern Ireland employer to take advice before formal action. Getting the classification wrong changes both the procedure you must follow and the size of the risk.

One more gap to know about. Article 17(6) allows regulations defining when the procedure counts as completed. Those regulations were not read for this page.

Before formal action, take advice

The research marks this step as one that needs a professional. That is not because the Code is hard to read — it is short, and free. It is because of what happens when you move from a conversation to a formal process. From that moment, the decisions you take are the ones a tribunal will later examine.

What you can do yourself, now:

• adopt an absence policy that reflects the current sick pay rules
• write down the facts of a concern as they happen, dated
• have an informal conversation, and record that you had it

When to take advice:

• before you issue a formal invitation to a disciplinary meeting
• before any warning
• before any dismissal
• in Northern Ireland, before any step at all that could lead to dismissal, because the statutory procedure starts with the first letter

This is the last step in the People hub. Where a post is ending because its funding has gone rather than for conduct or absence, use manage a fixed-term grant-funded post to its end instead.

Common mistake: budgeting sick pay from a template written before the April 2026 change

The waiting days and the lower earnings limit were cost-control features everyone had built in. Both disappeared on the same day, and the changes are in force, not pending. Statutory sick pay is payable from day one to every employee regardless of earnings, and it is not recoverable. A charity budgeting from an older template has under-provided.

Common mistake: treating the Acas Code as a recommendation

It is a statutory code. A tribunal must take it into account. On a claim listed in Schedule A2, an unreasonable failure to follow it lets the tribunal raise the award by up to 25 per cent. That figure is in section 207A, not in the Code.

A draft replacement Code is out for consultation. The current Code applies until a new one takes effect.

Common mistake: using the disciplinary procedure for a redundancy or the end of a fixed-term contract

One procedure gets used for every departure. But the Code covers misconduct, poor performance and grievances. It does not apply to redundancy dismissals or the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts. Those have their own fairness requirements: see what you owe when a grant ends.

Worked example

Tollgate Youth CIO’s one employee is off sick for a couple of weeks. On her return, a concern about her performance comes to light.

The sickness. Tollgate pays statutory sick pay from her first day off, at £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, whatever she earns. It cannot recover it. Its absence policy, adopted before she started, already reflects the April 2026 change, so the cost is no surprise.

The performance concern. This is a disciplinary situation, so the Acas Code applies. The manager first writes down, with dates, what has been observed. Before sending any formal letter, the trustees take advice — the step the research says this situation needs.

The process then follows the Code:

• an investigation
• a letter setting out the concern and the right to be accompanied
• a meeting
• a written decision
• an appeal heard by someone not involved before

Unfair dismissal is the largest single tribunal jurisdiction in the official statistics. Those figures cover all employers, not charities. No breakdown by sector or size exists. So Tollgate cannot tell from them how likely a claim is. It can tell only that this is the kind of claim the process is there to defend.

Had Tollgate been in Northern Ireland, the Acas Code would not apply. If dismissal were in contemplation, the statutory three-step procedure would apply, starting with the first letter. Skipping it would make any dismissal automatically unfair.