Government aims to change “sick note” culture with new “fit note”

The new medical “fit note” has been unveiled by the Government for consultaion over the next 12 weeks.

Managing sickness is always a challenge for employers and it hasn’t been helped by the ‘sick note’ system which makes sickness a black and white issue i.e. you are either fit to work or you're not.

The “fit note” is designed to set out what an employee can do to enable them to stay at work or return as soon as possible.

The “fit note” should be implemented in Spring 2010.



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New National Minimum Wage Rates

From 1 October 2009 the adult minimum wage rate will increase from £5.73 an hour to £5.80. The Youth Development Rate (for workers aged 18 to 21) will rise from £4.77 to £4.83 and for 16-17 year olds will increase from £3.53 to £3.67 an hour. The Government has also announced that, from October 2010, they will be adopting the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation that 21 year olds be entitled to the adult rate.

Many businesses may have been hoping that the Government would adopt the British Chamber of Commerce’s proposal to freeze the minimum wage rates given the current economic climate. However, these modest increases will provide benefit to low income earners whilst having a relatively moderate impact on businesses.

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