Overview of Setting Up Plan and Type for Statutory Sick Pay

Employees are eligible for Statutory Sick Pay and leave based on certain criteria.

Overnight Shifts

When an employee is scheduled to work overnight (for example, shift starting at 10pm and ending at 6am), the day that counts for SSP purposes is the day the shift starts. This functionality is supported in the Cloud: the predefined entitlement formula looks at the start and end of the shift to determine which day qualifies for SSP, based on when the shift started.

Note: The only prerequisite is that the employee’s work schedule must be defined as Time and the absence type unit of measure cannot be Calendar Days.

Example: An employee works overnight shifts. The shift pattern is from 10pm until 6AM the next morning. The pattern starts on Monday and the last shift ends on the following Saturday at 6am. The employee has a sickness absence starting on the Monday and ending on the Friday (they return to work for the Friday shift starting at 10pm).

This absence will be processed as being absent from Monday (the beginning of the first shift) to Thursday (the beginning of the last shift the employee was absent for).

Statutory Sick Pay Schedule

To enable the accurate processing of absences, a schedule must be available for the employee being processed. If one hasn’t been specified (or not found), the application uses the employee’s work schedule (which again can be associated at different levels of the organization). Users can create an alternative work schedule to that which the employee normally uses for calculating SSP payments.

The SSP schedule is identified by a specific category, and can be associated at different levels of the organization (from Enterprise to Assignment).

Alternative SSP Schedule

If an SSP schedule category is specified on the SSP plan, then it will be used to process the absence instead of any other work schedule described above.

To create a schedule that can be used for SSP calculations, set up a work schedule category and ensure that the code value is SSP. You can specify a meaningful name.

To set up a work schedule category:

1. In the My Client Groups work area, select Compensation > Lookups.
2. Click on Manage Common Lookups page. Search for the lookup type 'ZMM%SCHE%' and click Search.
3. Select the lookup type 'Schedule Category'.
4. Add a child row with the Lookup Code as 'SSP', Effective Date as '1/1/10', Meaning as 'UK SSP' and Description 'UK SSP'.
5. Click Save.

You will now be able to create a work schedule and use the category created.

Note: After you have created the work schedule category, you can create schedules to reflect the SSP schedules used within your organization. Ensure that the category is SSP (as created above), the effective start date is a Sunday and the type is the same as the work schedule.

Based on your business requirements, the schedules can then be assigned to different levels of the organization this can be achieved by following the steps below:

1. Navigate to the Manage Work Schedule Assignment Administration page.
2. Search for the Work Schedule for Support schedule.
3. Click the schedule to open it on the Edit Work Schedule Assignment page.
4. In the Resource Assignments region, click Add Row from the Actions menu.
5. Select at what level that you need to add the resource schedule at and then select the appropriate name.
6. Ensure that the Primary field is blank and click Submit.

Note: You can create as many SSP schedules as required by your organization, as long as they all have the SSP category.

SSP Processing

The SSP processing uses case functionality to group and view absences details associated with absence periods. The occupational schemes and all other statutory absences don't use case.

The entitlements to statutory sick payments are calculated and processed using predefined code and will be processed as follows for both single and multiple assignments:

• Multiple assignments are aggregated, if they are all on the same Statutory Deductions card.
• Calculate the average weekly earnings using the appropriate pay information for the aggregated assignments or single assignments.
• Check that the person is absent from all the aggregated assignments associated with the absence period.
• Include absence records that are entered at assignment or person level
• Ensure that a Period of Incapacity to work is formed
• Identify the waiting days
• End payment after 28 weeks of paying statutory sick pay
• Check whether the chain of linked absences is longer than 3 years.
• Identify whether the employee has a Job Center linking letter
• Check that the person has earned enough to meet or exceed the Lower Earnings Limit.
• If payment needs to be stopped, then the application will create the appropriate certification.
• UK Sickness Absence Validation: This checks if the absence is pregnancy-related, and generates a warning message for Statutory Maternity Leave or Pay, if the sick leave falls within 4 weeks of the due date of birth.

You can configure the absence type using the global feature to allow entry of an absence at assignment or person level. For more information, see Implementing Absence Management on Oracle Help Center.

The absences management process uses the certification feature to stop absence payments. You can generate certifications manually, or as required by processing the absence. If you need to override a certification, you can void the certification.

When an absence is processed, it automatically creates a new case. Alternatively, if the absence is linked for Statutory Sick Pay purposes to a previous absence, it adds the absence to the already created case containing the linked absence.

Setup for SSP Processing

You must perform these setup steps to be able to use the SSP processing functionality.

It is recommended that you are familiar with these sections in the UK Statutory Absence Setup document:

• Average weekly earnings not available or available partially
• Effective dates
• Seniority dates
• Absence reason linkage
• Absence record maintenance
• Unit of measure
• Payroll elements
• Rate definitions
• SSP overnight shifts
• SSP schedules
• Alternative SSP schedules

SSP with Existing Setup

Customers who are already using the Oracle SSP solution and wish to move to the new processing need only do these:

• Enable processing.
• Ensure that the absence type display feature items Deferred processing on subsequent absences and Deferred processing on initial entry are unselected.

SSP without Existing Setup

Customers without existing setup should follow these setup instructions. Ensure that you set up the required components in this order:

• Create the rate definitions.
• Create the required elements to be associated with the statutory absence plans.
• Create the statutory absence plans.
• Create the absence types, including assigning the appropriate certifications to the absence type.
• Enable processing.

Note: Absence plans and types vary depending on the type of absence being set up. If you have multiple types with different units of measure, you need to use a separate plan for each type.