Thursday | 18 April 2024 | 9 Shawaal 1445

Fatwa Answer

Question ID: 674 Category: Permissible and Impermissible
Taking Pay for Sick Day

Salaams Hazrat.

 

- On the 25th of October, I was suffering from  a fever, and Gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhoea) overnight, so I was rang in to tell my employer, I am not coming in.

 

- The next day on the morning of 26th of October, I rang in suck again. My fever had subsided, but I still expected not to have fully recovered from diarrhoea, as generally it can take days to settle down. The agreement with the employer was, if miraculously I feel better through out the day, I should come in and for the remainder of my shift. 

 

- As the day (26th of October) progressed, surprisingly my diarrhoea had gone, so at this point I was obligated to back into work, but my mom raised an interesting point. she forbade anyone to visit our home because 5 members of my family were affected one after the other (me included) indicating that this viral infection is clearly contagious.

 

- After doing some research, it can contagious up to 2 weeks from the point of recovery:

 

 

You're most infectious from when your symptoms start until 2 days after they've passed. Stay off school or work until your symptoms have stopped for 2 days.

 

- So, based on this discovery, I decided not to go into the work to complete the remaining hours left in the day.

 

Questions:

 

1) Considering officially I was given "statutory sick pay" for 26th October based on being sick, can I still accept it as halal income even though in reality my reasons for not coming to work was based on not passing on the virus to someone else? I am confident, that any employer would not allow an employee to stick around, and infect colleagues, and would instead send them home. 

 

2) If I inform my manager of the above reason, would it this be justified, and halal under the shariah?

 

Jazak'Allah.

الجواب وبالله التوفيق

  • As per the situation described in your question, on October 26thwhen you were feeling better and you were not completely sick either, it will be impermissible for you accept the payment for that day.
  • Yes, you should inform your manager, it will be the virtuous thing to do.

واللہ اعلم بالصواب