Duty to recover company sick pay in compensation claim for personal injury

When our specialist Personal Injury teams are instructed by clients to pursue the recovery of damages resulting from a personal injury they have to ensure that all losses incurred are recovered.

An employer may offer a sick pay scheme that is more generous than the legal minimum (which is Statutory Sick Pay) and the client may have received payment from that when they are absent from work following being injured.

In terms of an employment contract the injured person (and their representatives) may have a duty to recover money paid out to the injured person as sick pay during their period of absence. A solicitor representing an injured person should check this with the client and their employer as it may form part of the claim.

Contract of employment

If there is a clause in the employment contract that states that in the event of a pay out in respect of damages from a Personal Injury, the employee requires to repay the company sick pay then those contractual terms require to be adhered to. In practice the sum that is due to be paid to the employer is added to the calculation of the claim.

Part of the client’s claim will then be for repayment of company sick pay. If this is missed by the client or their representatives then this contractual terms binds the employee to repay this. This means that it is important that specialist Personal Injury lawyers represent injured people. If this is missed then it could mean that the employee is out of pocket to the tune of the full repayment of company sick pay which can run to thousands of pounds.

Case study details

Our client was involved in a road traffic accident when her car was stationary and it was struck from behind by a 4×4 vehicle. She suffered whiplash and a soft tissue injury to her knee when it hit against the dashboard upon impact.

Our client was off work for six weeks as she was unable to work due to her injuries. Her employers carried out a phased return to work for her over a four-week period and she was then able to return to work on a full-time basis.

During her period of absence from work our client was paid sick pay. When we took instruction from our client we established that in terms of her contract of employment there was a duty to repay her employers any sick pay that was paid to her if she made a recovery of compensation.

As part of our client’s claims we intimated a four-figure sum in respect of repayment of company sick pay. Our client had a loss of earnings in addition to this. The loss of earnings was a direct loss to our client; the repayment of company sick pay would be due to be paid by our client should she have a successful claim for damages.

Why it is important to instruct specialist solicitors

It is important when you are involved in an accident that you instruct Personal Injury solicitors who know what to recover on behalf of a client. In this particular case, our team made a full recovery of company sick pay on behalf of the employer.

Contact our personal injury solicitors

If you’ve suffered a similar injury our solicitors can help you secure the justice and compensation you deserve. Get in touch now for a free chat about your claim. Call us free on 0808 501 5532 or find out more information about the personal injury service we provide.