return-to-work

---
name: return-to-work
description: Turns the chat you have when someone comes back from being off into a dated one-page record, with the sick pay worked out, the phased return written down, and the medical detail kept out of the file everyone can see. Use when a member of staff has been off sick, injured or absent and is coming back, whether that is two shifts or eight weeks.
---

# The conversation after someone comes back, on one page you could show anyone

You give me the dates somebody was off, whatever they sent you at the time - a WhatsApp at six in the morning, a photo of a fit note, a message from their mum - and what you know about the job they do. You get back a sheet to hold the conversation from and fill in as the record, a sick pay working with the figures shown, a phased return with dates and a rate of pay if they need one, and two separate files: one with the dates that a manager can open, one with the medical detail that stays locked.

## What it does

1. **Decide which conversation this is before you put it in the diary.** Two shifts off with a stomach bug and eight weeks off after surgery are not the same meeting. Count the calendar days off, the shifts missed, and how many separate absences there have been in the last twelve months, because that last number is the one the record asks for and the one nobody ever has to hand. Acas is clear the meeting is not a legal duty: "It's not a legal requirement to have a return to work meeting. But a chat as soon as possible after an employee has returned is a good opportunity to: make sure the employee is ready to return to work; talk about any work updates that happened while they were off; see if they need any support; agree on a plan for returning to work, if appropriate, for example a phased return to work; talk about what they would like other employees to know about their absence and what they would like to keep confidential." For anything over a week, hold it before the first shift rather than during it. Acas advises meeting "before the employee returns. Or as soon as possible after they return."

2. **Work out the sick pay before the meeting, not after it.** Nothing sours a return like being told on payday. GOV.UK: "£123.25 a week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or 80% of your normal weekly earnings - whichever is lower. It's paid for up to 28 weeks." The line that matters in hospitality is the next one: "You'll be paid SSP for all the full days you're off sick that you normally would have worked." With a rota that changes weekly, write down which shifts they would have worked, from the published rota, before calculating anything. Check whether this absence links to an earlier one: periods count as linked where they "last more than one full working day" and are "8 weeks or less apart". If SSP has run out or never applied, a deadline falls on you. The employer "must send you form SSP1" within 7 days of SSP ending unexpectedly, on or before the beginning of the 23rd week if it is expected to end first, or within 7 days of the first day off sick if the person does not qualify.

3. **Open two files, not one, before you write a word.** The Information Commissioner's Office draws the distinction the whole record hangs on. A sickness record "contains details of the illness or condition responsible for a worker's absence". An absence record "may give the reason for absence as 'sickness' or 'accident' but does not include any reference to specific medical conditions", and the ICO adds: "You could, and you may prefer, to use absence records instead of sickness records where practical. These are generally less intrusive to workers' privacy." So the file your duty managers can open holds dates, shifts and the word sickness. The condition and the fit note go in the second file, stored as the ICO suggests: "keeping the sickness record in a specially protected computer file, perhaps using encryption. If you use physical records, you could keep it in a sealed envelope, stored in a locked filing cabinet." A shared folder on the office desktop is not that.

4. **Spend fifteen minutes preparing, and solve the room problem first.** Acas says an employer should "make sure the chat will be private and confidential, whether it is face to face or online", "gather any relevant employee records - for example, records of previous conversations about the employee's absence", "prepare questions to ask" and "make sure they know what support they can offer". In a restaurant there is usually nowhere private, so this ends up happening by the cellar steps with a delivery arriving, and the person says nothing. Book a room, or a table in the closed dining room at 3pm, and say where it will be when you invite them. Acas also says to think in advance about how you would answer a request for flexible working, a phased return or reasonable adjustments, and to read any doctor's recommendations before you sit down, not across the table.

5. **Hold the meeting in the same order every time, and fill the sheet in as you go.** The Acas template has five sections, and using the same five for the kitchen porter and the head chef is what makes the record fair: Updates, Confidentiality, Details of absence, Discussion questions, Next steps. Its first two questions are the ones managers skip. "Have you updated the employee on any changes at work while they have been away?" Then: "Have you let the employee know that the information they share will stay confidential? You should only share this information with someone else if the employee agrees that you need to." Say that out loud rather than leaving it implied. The absence section asks for the reason, whether the absence "was linked to disability or pregnancy", the length, and "Number of days of absence in the last 12 months". Write the answers in the words they used, not your summary of them.

6. **Ask what the team is allowed to be told, and write the answer down verbatim.** Acas lists this as one of the five purposes, and in a small hospitality team it is the one with consequences, because eight people covered the shifts and every one of them will ask. Agree a single sentence together, write it on the sheet, and use exactly that sentence: "She has been off sick, she is back Thursday, that is all I am sharing." If they would rather say something themselves, agree who says it and when. Then hold the line with your own managers, because the ICO is direct: "You should not make the sickness, injury or absence records of individual workers available to others, unless it is necessary for them to do their jobs."

7. **If they are not fully fit, write the phased return down with dates, duties and a rate of pay.** Acas describes a phased return as "starting on reduced hours", "doing work that is different to their usual job" or "having a lighter workload". A fit note "will usually give advice on how long their phased return should be. However, the employer and their employee should still discuss and agree this together." Pay is where these fall apart. Acas: "If the employee returns to their usual work but on reduced hours, they should get their usual rate of pay for the hours they work", with unworked time depending on what was agreed, a policy, company sick pay or SSP. For lighter duties: "it's up to the employer and employee to agree on a rate of pay. The employer should put this agreement in writing, for example in a letter or email." So the sheet carries a start date, an end date, hours for each week, what they will and will not be doing, the rate for hours worked, what happens to the rest, and a review date.

8. **Look for the cause, and do not push for it.** Acas says an employer "should also look out for signs of underlying problems causing an employee's absence", naming work-related stress and disability, then sets the limit: "The employer should be sensitive and understanding if they're talking to someone about this. An employee does not have to tell them anything. But talking openly can help the employer put the right support in place." Two template questions do the work without prying: "Is there anything that might affect their recovery or cause the sickness to happen again?" and whether the absence was linked to disability or pregnancy. Where it is a disability, the template names what follows: "reasonable adjustments - required by law (Equality Act 2010)". Record the adjustment agreed, who is arranging it, and by when.

9. **Close the sheet, file each half in the right place, and set the next date.** Sign and date it, give the person a copy the same day, and ask them to say if anything on it is wrong. Split it: dates and days to the absence record, the condition and the fit note to the locked one. The Acas template asks, "[For organisations with an absence trigger point policy] Is the employee close to reaching any absence trigger points?" and, if one has been reached, "Have you agreed a date for an absence review to discuss further support?" Note the word support. A trigger is a prompt to have a conversation, never an automatic warning. If a phased return or an adjustment is outstanding, put the review date in the diary before you leave the room.

## Then it checks

1. The meeting has a date on or before the first shift back, or within five shifts of it with a written reason for the delay. Absences over seven days have a meeting date before the return date.
2. Every field on the sheet is filled, including the reason, the length, the days absent in the last twelve months, and the disability or pregnancy question. No blanks, no dashes, no "n/a".
3. Two records exist and are separate. The absence record holds dates, shifts and the word sickness, and no condition, diagnosis, symptom or fit note. The sickness record is stored somewhere named on the sheet that the whole management team cannot open.
4. The sick pay working shows which rostered shifts were missed, the SSP figure with the £123.25 and 80% comparison done, whether this absence links to an earlier one within eight weeks, and whether an SSP1 is due and when.
5. Any phased return has a start date, an end date, hours for each week, duties included and excluded, the rate for hours worked, what is paid for hours not worked, a review date, and confirmation it was sent in writing.
6. The sheet records, in the employee's own words, what the team may be told; a copy went to them on the day; and no list naming individuals and their absences is displayed anywhere staff can see it, including the office wall, the rota and the staff WhatsApp group.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never write a diagnosis, a symptom or a medicine into the absence record, the rota, a handover book or a message to another manager. The ICO treats health information as special category data and asks employers to keep the condition apart from the dates, so people who only need to know someone was off do not learn why. Once it is in the rota file you cannot take it back out of everyone's memory.
- Never publish or read out individual absence figures to the team. The ICO gives this as its worked example of misuse: "Revealing sickness absences to all workers as part of a 'league table' is an example of inappropriate use of sickness records", and says an employer "could publish totals of sickness absence by department or section, as long as individual workers are not identifiable."
- Never let a trigger point make the decision. Counting a disability-related or pregnancy-related absence towards a threshold without advice is how an attendance process turns into a discrimination claim.
- Never turn this meeting into a disciplinary one halfway through. If what you hear makes you think a formal process is needed, end the meeting, say so plainly, and start the other process on another day with the person told in advance what it is about.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's HR adviser, solicitor or accountant to check before it is used. It does not decide anyone's sick pay entitlement, it does not replace advice on disability or reasonable adjustments, and it is not employment law advice.

## Built from
- Acas, "Return to work meetings", https://www.acas.org.uk/returning-to-work-after-absence, last updated 11 July 2024, read 14 September 2026: the five purposes, the statement that the meeting is not a legal requirement, and the preparation list. Shaped steps 1, 4, 6 and 8.
- Acas, "Template for a return to work meeting", https://www.acas.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-07/return-to-work-meeting-template.docx, dated 11 July 2024, read 14 September 2026: the five section headings and the exact field wording, including the twelve-month day count and the trigger point questions. Shaped steps 5, 8 and 9 and check 2.
- Acas, "Phased returns", https://www.acas.org.uk/returning-to-work-after-absence/phased-return-to-work, last updated 11 July 2024, read 14 September 2026: the three forms of phased return and the pay treatment for reduced hours and lighter duties. Shaped step 7 and check 5.
- GOV.UK, "Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): What you'll get", https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/what-youll-get, no publication date shown on the page, read 14 September 2026: the £123.25 or 80% comparison, the 28 week maximum, and payment for days normally worked. Shaped step 2 and check 4.
- GOV.UK, "Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): Eligibility", https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/eligibility, no publication date shown on the page, read 14 September 2026: the 7 day fit note threshold, linked periods, and the three SSP1 deadlines. Shaped step 2 and check 4.
- Information Commissioner's Office, "How do we handle sickness and injury records?", https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/information-about-workers-health/how-do-we-handle-sickness-and-injury-records/, no publication date shown on the page, read 14 September 2026: sickness versus absence records, the storage advice, the access limit, and the league table example. Shaped step 3, checks 3 and 6, and two of the rules.

# return-to-work

## You are given
A folder about one named member of staff at a UK hospitality business who has been absent. It holds whatever arrived at the time: a WhatsApp or text message sent at six in the morning, a photograph of a fit note, a message from a relative, a note the duty manager wrote on the rota. Plus the published rota covering the absence, the person's absence history for the last twelve months in whatever form it exists, their normal weekly earnings figure, the current Statutory Sick Pay weekly rate as the owner has recorded it, and any phased return or adjustment the owner has already agreed with them. Dates are in mixed formats and some absences were never written down at all.

## Produce
Write into an `output/` folder next to the inputs. Files 1 and 2 are stored separately and are never merged.

1. `absence-record.csv` with these columns in this order: `ref`, `employee_name`, `absence_start_date`, `absence_end_date`, `calendar_days`, `rostered_shifts_missed`, `shift_dates_missed`, `absence_type`, `self_certified_or_fit_note`, `date_notified`, `how_notified`, `notified_by`, `source_file`. `absence_type` is exactly one of `sickness`, `accident`, `other`. This file carries no condition, no diagnosis, no symptom, no medicine and no fit note wording.
2. `sickness-record-CONFIDENTIAL.csv` with columns: `ref`, `employee_name`, `what_the_employee_or_fit_note_stated_verbatim`, `source_document`, `document_date`, `fit_note_from_date`, `fit_note_to_date`, `fit_note_advice_verbatim`, `where_this_file_is_stored`, `who_may_open_it`. Nothing from this file is repeated into any other output.
3. `ssp-working.csv` with columns: `item`, `value`, `how_it_was_worked_out`, `source_file`. Rows in exactly this order: `Rostered shifts missed`, `Dates of those shifts`, `Statutory Sick Pay weekly rate as supplied (GBP)`, `Normal weekly earnings as supplied (GBP)`, `80% of normal weekly earnings (GBP)`, `Lower of the two (GBP)`, `Weeks of absence`, `Linked to an earlier absence`, `Date the earlier absence ended`, `Weeks between the two absences`, `SSP1 form due`, `SSP1 deadline date`, `Reason the SSP1 deadline applies`. Any row whose figure was not supplied reads `not supplied` and is listed in `gaps.md`.
4. `absence-history.csv` with columns: `ref`, `absence_start_date`, `absence_end_date`, `calendar_days`, `shifts_missed`, `source_file`, plus a final row labelled `TOTALS IN LAST 12 MONTHS` carrying the number of separate absences, the total calendar days and the total shifts missed.
5. `phased-return.csv` with columns: `week_commencing`, `days_worked`, `hours_each_day`, `total_hours_that_week`, `duties_included`, `duties_excluded`, `rate_for_hours_worked_gbp`, `what_is_paid_for_hours_not_worked`, `agreed_by`, `date_agreed`, `sent_in_writing_on`. Plus a final row labelled `REVIEW DATE` carrying the review date as supplied. Written empty if no phased return was agreed.
6. `return-to-work-sheet.md` - one printable A4 page with five headed sections in exactly this order: `Updates`, `Confidentiality`, `Details of absence`, `Discussion questions`, `Next steps`. Fields are filled from the supplied inputs and left blank where nothing was supplied. No field is filled with a dash or the letters n/a.
7. `what-the-team-may-be-told.txt` - the one sentence the employee agreed, copied word for word, with the date agreed and who agreed it. Written empty if no sentence was supplied.
8. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of every empty field, every absence with no notification record, every date that could not be read, every figure not supplied, and every source document that mixes dates and medical detail in one message.

## Rules
- Codex records only what is in the supplied inputs, attributed and dated. Never infer a reason for an absence. If no reason was supplied, `absence_type` reads `not recorded` and the row goes in `gaps.md`.
- Never characterise the absence or the person. Write no comment on frequency, pattern, timing, credibility or attendance, and produce no absence league table, ranking or comparison between staff.
- Never write a diagnosis, a symptom, a medicine or fit note wording into `absence-record.csv`, `absence-history.csv`, `phased-return.csv`, the sheet, the rota or any other file. Health detail exists only in `sickness-record-CONFIDENTIAL.csv`.
- Never state, decide or imply an entitlement. Show the Statutory Sick Pay arithmetic from the figures supplied and stop. Write no conclusion about whether the person qualifies, and no tax or National Insurance treatment.
- Never draft a disciplinary outcome, a trigger-point consequence, a warning or an attendance decision. A trigger point may be recorded as reached, with the figure it was measured against, and nothing may follow it in writing.
- Never count a disability-related or pregnancy-related absence into a threshold. Record the absence, record that the disability or pregnancy question was answered, and leave the threshold arithmetic to `gaps.md` for the adviser.
- Every figure and every date must trace to a supplied input file named in the row. Never fill a rate, an earnings figure or a shift from memory or a published default.
- Use British English, £ and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner's HR adviser, solicitor or accountant to check before it is used. It is not advice, it does not decide anyone's sick pay entitlement, and it replaces no advice on disability or reasonable adjustments.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written, the row count of each CSV, the calendar days and shifts missed for this absence, the number of separate absences and total days in the last twelve months, every line of `ssp-working.csv`, whether an SSP1 deadline falls and on what date, whether a phased return was written, confirmation that the two records are in separate files and that no condition appears outside `sickness-record-CONFIDENTIAL.csv`, and the `gaps.md` item count.