Can An Employee Really Visit A Pub While On Sick Leave?

The employment tribunal judgment in the case of Kane v Debmat Surfacing Limited attracted a lot of media attention last week. Headlines included "Visiting pub while off work sick is not sackable offence, judge rules" (The Metro) and "Man sacked for drinking outside social club while pulling a sickie wins tribunal" (iNews). This coverage could have led some readers to believe that employees are within their rights to partake in activities, such as going to the pub, which are inconsistent with the reasons given to their employer as to why they had to take sick leave.

While it is true that the claimant was successful and was deemed to be unfairly dismissed, this is a scenario where further context is needed to understand why the employee was successful with his claim. The employee being spotted drinking in a pub during a period of sickness absence was merely the background to the outcome of this case.