Illness

Paid sick leave

Unilever in the UK provides a discretionary company sick pay scheme which gives protection to employees who can't come to work through sickness or injury. The amount of paid sick leave that you can get depends on how long you have worked for Unilever. Check what you are entitled to with your HR People Partner.

While you are on paid sick leave you will continue to build up pension as normal.

Unpaid sick leave

If you are still sick and have used up all of your paid sick leave, you may have to take unpaid sick leave.

Serious ill-health

If you become seriously ill and in Unilever’s opinion can no longer work, you may be able to take your pension earlier than age 55, or age 57 from 2028.

To do this, your condition must mean that in Unilever’s opinion:

• You can no longer do your job or a job that’s similar
• Your ability to do paid work is severely impaired, and
• Your illness is permanent or means that you are permanently incapacitated

You may need to provide medical evidence to demonstrate this.

What happens next

Your HR People Partner will refer you to occupational health to be assessed.

This can take some time as they will need to gather medical evidence from your doctor and meet to make a decision.

Once they have made a decision, they will tell the Unilever Pensions Team.

If they decide that you qualify, we will pay you a serious ill-health pension.