Warned for being off sick? Absence triggers and the Bradford factor

You were too ill to work. Now your manager is reading out a Bradford score and calling it a warning. Before you defend yourself against a number, ask for the absence policy and the dates they counted. Genuine sickness is a health issue, not an admission of misconduct.

What to do before you reply

1. Save the dates and messages. Write down when you were off, who you told and what your manager said. Keep copies of your own absence records and correspondence somewhere you can access if your work account closes.
2. Ask what the meeting can decide. Request the policy, the absence record, the trigger or Bradford calculation and confirmation of whether a formal warning is possible. If it is, ask for a companion before the meeting.
3. Identify protected absence. Explain which days were pregnancy-related or linked to a disability. Ask for pregnancy days to come out of the count and for reasonable adjustments to disability-related triggers.
4. Check the payslip. Use the SSP calculator and ask payroll to explain any missing sick pay. A warning does not cancel SSP entitlement.
5. Get advice without missing the appeal deadline. Contact your union, Acas in Great Britain or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland. Citizens Advice or a law centre can help. Do not resign to get ahead of a warning.

If you are not in a union, look at one that organises your sector. UNISON represents care and NHS staff; Usdaw represents retail staff; Unite and GMB organise in hospitality, logistics, food, security and cleaning. IWGB organises delivery riders and other insecure workers. Ask about membership and support, but do not assume joining now means legal cover for an existing dispute. If your visa is tied to this job, get immigration advice before resigning.

Can they warn you for being off sick?

Yes, an employer can use an attendance policy and, after considering your circumstances, issue a warning. It cannot claim that three sick days automatically require one by law. Acas says there are no legal rules about how or when absence should be reviewed. The employer chooses the review points.

An employer should not use review points to automatically trigger disciplinary action for absence.

That is Acas guidance. A review should examine why you were off, how you are now and what support could help, including occupational health. A spreadsheet cannot answer those questions. A warning issued solely because you crossed a line in it skips the work Acas tells employers to do.

Genuine sickness is an attendance or capability issue, not misconduct. Section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 includes health in the definition of capability. If the employer alleges that you were not genuinely sick, or broke a reporting rule, that is a separate allegation requiring investigation. Being ill does not excuse every other breach, but absence alone does not prove one. See discipline while off sick.

A warning after three days is neither automatically unlawful nor automatically fair. Challenge an incorrect count, pregnancy-related days, a failure to consider disability adjustments or the claim that genuine illness was misconduct. An attendance warning can become the basis of a later dismissal. Deal with it now.

A warning alone does not give you an unfair dismissal claim. A discriminatory warning can be challenged without waiting to be sacked and without any minimum service.

The Bradford factor is not a law

The Bradford factor is an attendance formula, B = S² × D. S is the number of separate spells of absence. D is the total days absent in the period your employer uses. There is no statutory score, legal trigger threshold or compulsory rolling period. Check your policy rather than accepting a score with no working behind it.

Squaring the spells gives repeated short absences much more weight than one long absence. It measures that pattern, not whether you were fit to work. We think treating the result as a verdict on your reliability is unfair. The arithmetic cannot tell a migraine from dishonesty.

Disability-related absence

In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 defines disability as a physical or mental impairment with a substantial, long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities. Substantial means more than minor or trivial. Long-term includes an effect that has lasted, or is likely to last, at least 12 months. You do not have to wait a year before asking for help. A mental health condition, long COVID or menopause symptoms can meet the test. A fit note is not, by itself, the legal test.

Under section 20, employers must make reasonable adjustments where their absence policy puts a disabled worker at a substantial disadvantage. Tell them about the condition and its effect on your attendance. Acas gives examples of adjustments you can request:

• Exclude some or all disability-related sickness from triggers.
• Raise the number of absences that starts a review.
• Record disability-related absence separately.
• Change duties or hours to reduce the disadvantage.

There is no blanket rule that every disability-related day must be ignored. In Griffiths v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWCA Civ 1265, the Court of Appeal confirmed that reasonable-adjustment duties can apply to absence policies. Whether the requested adjustment is reasonable depends on the circumstances. “Everyone gets the same trigger” does not settle that question.

Section 15 also protects against unfavourable treatment because of something arising from disability, including disability-related absence. If the employer knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, about your disability, it must justify that treatment as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Staffing needs do not automatically justify a warning. This protection reaches beyond employees to many workers and agency staff. A zero-hours warehouse picker whose shifts disappear because of disability-related sickness may have a claim even without unfair dismissal rights. See making a discrimination complaint and asking for reasonable adjustments.

Pregnancy-related absence must come out of the score

Acas says employers should record pregnancy-related sickness separately and not count it towards any review or trigger. In Great Britain, unfavourable treatment because of pregnancy-related illness during the protected period is discrimination under section 18 of the Equality Act. Employees dismissed for a pregnancy-related reason also have automatic unfair dismissal protection under regulation 20 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999. Neither claim needs minimum service. Ask for a warning based on those days to be withdrawn. Read pregnancy discrimination at work.

Return-to-work meetings

A return-to-work meeting should check that you can return safely and discuss support. A kitchen porter invited to a “quick chat” can ask whether it may end in a formal warning. The meeting’s name does not decide your rights. Its possible outcome does.

In Great Britain, section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 gives workers who reasonably request it the right to a companion at a disciplinary or grievance hearing. Section 13 defines a disciplinary hearing to include one that could result in a formal warning or confirm one on appeal. A formal capability-warning hearing can therefore qualify, even though genuine sickness is not misconduct.

Ask for a fellow worker, an employed union official or a union representative certified to accompany you. An ordinary informal return-to-work chat or fact-finding review does not carry the same automatic right. Your policy may allow more, and a companion may be a reasonable adjustment if you are disabled. See who can attend a hearing.

What to say, and what to leave out

Do not agree that genuine illness was misconduct. Do not accept a score you have not seen. Do not resign in the room, and do not guess a diagnosis you have not been given. If they refuse to remove pregnancy days, or refuse to consider an adjustment, put that in a grievance. A grievance does not stop a tribunal clock.

Sick pay while they talk about a warning

From 6 April 2026, eligible workers get SSP from the first full qualifying day at the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, for up to 28 weeks. There are no waiting days or minimum earnings floor. Qualifying days are the days you would have worked; for irregular work, the employer should agree which days count. Contractual sick pay may be higher.

You must have started work, be classed as employed for tax purposes and report sickness within the employer’s deadline, or within 7 days if none is set. PAYE agency and zero-hours workers can qualify. Genuinely self-employed people do not get SSP. Linked spells no more than eight weeks apart use the first spell’s average earnings. See Acas’s eligibility rules, GOV.UK and our SSP guide.

If SSP is missing or wrong, ask payroll to explain the calculation and refusal in writing. You can contact HMRC’s Statutory Payment Dispute Team for an entitlement decision. Unpaid SSP can also be an unlawful deduction from wages. Get advice on the right route and its deadline; an internal pay query does not stop a tribunal time limit.

Can they dismiss you, and how do you appeal?

Yes, an employer can dismiss you while you are off sick. A fair ill-health capability process normally involves consultation, up-to-date medical evidence, consideration of reasonable adjustments and alternatives to dismissal, and clear warning that your job is at risk. Acas says dismissal of a disabled employee should be a last resort. See dismissal because of illness.

Ordinary unfair dismissal in Great Britain still needs two years under section 108. From 1 January 2027 the qualifying period is scheduled to drop to six months for dismissals on or after that date, and the compensatory award cap is scheduled to go. Neither is in force today. Discrimination needs no qualifying service. Nor does automatic unfair dismissal for pregnancy-related absence. Under two years, read sacked with no warning and unfair dismissal before you accept that nothing can be done.

Appeal using the deadline in the warning letter or policy. State the errors you want corrected, the protected days counted and the support or adjustments not considered. Ask for the warning to be withdrawn or revised and for an impartial reviewer. Keep a copy. If there is no appeal route, ask for one and consider a formal grievance. See appealing a disciplinary decision.

The Acas disciplinary Code concerns misconduct and poor performance, not a pure ill-health capability dismissal. Calling a health process “disciplinary” does not, by itself, make the Code or its compensation uplift apply. Fair handling and Equality Act duties still matter.

Employee, worker, agency or self-employed

The table summarises Great Britain rights. Employment status and SSP’s tax-employment test are different questions. A zero-hours label does not automatically stop you being an employee. HMRC explains SSP by employment type.

A zero-hours cleaner whose shifts disappear after sick leave should record the rota change and ask why. Ordinary illness alone does not make it discrimination, but disability or pregnancy may change the position. If the contract says self-employed but the reality suggests otherwise, read false self-employment, zero-hours rights and agency workers’ rights.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland shares the capability, Equality Act and SSP rules described above. The government’s timetable puts the extension for Scottish employment tribunal breach-of-contract claims on 9 November 2026, not 1 October. As at 1 October, claims arising from the same dismissal can therefore have different basic limits. Do not use the unfair-dismissal deadline for a contract claim.

In Northern Ireland, the same SSP changes apply. The Equality Act does not. Disability discrimination is governed by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Ordinary unfair dismissal normally needs one year under article 140 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996; protected dismissal reasons can have different rules.

Nidirect says most tribunal claims have a three-month limit, subject to early conciliation and the particular claim. Notify the Labour Relations Agency, not Acas, before a claim unless exempt. Advice NI and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland can also help. Read the Northern Ireland guide.

What has changed, and what has not

1. 6 April 2026SSP changes, in force

   Waiting days and the earnings floor removed. The rate is the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings.

2. 1 October 2026GB tribunal limits, in force

   Most basic three-month limits become six months for claims with a relevant date on or after this day. Scottish tribunal contract claims change on 9 November 2026.

3. 1 January 2027Unfair dismissal changes, scheduled

   The government’s timetable schedules six months’ qualifying service for dismissals from this date and removal of the compensatory award cap.

Questions people ask

Can your employer give you a warning for being off sick?

An attendance warning is possible under its policy, but no statute sets a number of sick days. Genuine illness should prompt an absence or capability review, not a conduct accusation. Acas says a trigger should not start discipline automatically. Pregnancy-related days must stay out of the score. Disability-related days may require adjustments, and a warning based on them can be discrimination.

Is the Bradford factor legal in the UK?

Using the formula is not illegal, and it is not a law. B = S² × D has no official score, trigger or rolling period. Three separate sick days score 27. One three-day spell scores 3. The employer must still avoid automatic discipline and discrimination. Ask for the working.

What can you do about a verbal warning after three sick days?

Ask whether it is a formal warning on your record, how long it stays active and what happens if you are ill again. Request the policy and absence calculation. Challenge wrong dates, pregnancy days or a failure to consider disability adjustments. Use the appeal deadline. A discriminatory warning can be a tribunal claim without minimum service.

Should disability-related absence count towards trigger points?

There is no blanket exemption. In Great Britain, reasonable adjustments can include excluding some or all disability-related days or raising the trigger. The employer must assess what is reasonable rather than simply applying the same number to everyone. A warning for disability-related absence may also need objective justification under section 15.

Can you bring someone to a return-to-work meeting?

An informal return-to-work chat has no automatic statutory companion right. In Great Britain, a hearing that could issue or confirm a formal warning can qualify, including a capability-warning hearing. Request a fellow worker or eligible union companion. Your policy or a disability adjustment may give you more support.

Do you get SSP from day one?

Eligible workers do, from the first full qualifying day under the rules in force from 6 April 2026. The rate is the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, for up to 28 weeks. You can self-certify the first 7 calendar days. A sickness warning does not remove your sick-pay entitlement.

Sources

1. Absence trigger points, Acas.
2. Disability-related absence, Acas.
3. Capability and performance when someone is disabled, Acas.
4. Sickness and difficult pregnancies, Acas.
5. Returning to work after absence, Acas.
6. Statutory sick pay, Acas, updated 30 June 2026.
7. Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, Acas.
8. Statutory Sick Pay and taking sick leave, GOV.UK.
9. SSP by employment type, HMRC.
10. Sickness absences spanning 6 April 2026, HMRC.
11. SSP factsheet, government policy evidence for the historical 1.3 million and 25% estimates.
12. Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, GOV.UK, updated 25 September 2026.
13. Employment Rights Act 2025 commencement and tribunal time-limit transition regulations, SI 2026/954, legislation.gov.uk.
14. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 98 and section 108, capability and unfair dismissal qualifying service.
15. Equality Act 2010, including sections 6, 15, 18, 20 and 83 and Schedule 1.
16. Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10 and section 13, accompaniment rights and hearing definitions.
17. Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999, including regulation 20.
18. Griffiths v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWCA Civ 1265, National Archives.
19. Statutory Payment Dispute Team, HMRC.
20. SSP changes 2026, Labour Relations Agency.
21. Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, article 140, legislation.gov.uk.
22. Employment-related tribunals, nidirect, Northern Ireland time limits and early conciliation.
23. Pregnancy and maternity-related discrimination and disadvantage, EHRC and BIS, research published in 2015/16. Historical estimate, not current sickness-warning data.