With respect to sick pay there are many factors to take into consideration. Within the cleaning industry most employees are part time working approx 2 hours per day Monday to Friday to supplement their main income, which provide them with sick pay.
A cost of sickness can not be built into a quotation. How would you estimate how many hours per year someone may or may not take off sick? Full time employees have a right to SSP but even this is not as simple as it seems as it is not all reclaimable from the government, you can only claim if it amounts to over 13% (the % may now have changed) of your total payroll.
It is not just in the cleaning industry where it is common not to pay sick pay but in many others such as the care sector for instance. Go ask on the window cleaning and carpet cleaning sections who gets sick pay? So that adds those who are self employed too.
It would be nice to think that my divs etc will be better because I don't pay sick pay, the fact of the matter is the money is just not there in the first place! There are plenty of honest hard working people out there who will not take days off unless genuine however for every one of them there are many others who will take time off for anything, because it is raining, because it is sunny, because they have a hangover, because they need to go shopping, I could go on!
As an employer I do not feel I should be accountable for peoples health, I already pay holiday pay, employers NIC and bonuses. If my employees are ill they have the option of taking holiday pay or making up the hours if there is availability elsewhere.
Fox