Employees calling in sick on Mondays, Fridays raises suspicions in summer
By Jeffrey R. Smith
It’s summer, and sometimes it’s hard to ignore the hot, sunny weather when you have other things to do.
A lot of people pick the summer months to take vacation and, of course, most schools are out for a couple of months. For people who have to go to work, it may be a little difficult to drag themselves into the office when they’d like nothing else but to sit in a comfy chair with a drink outside or go to the beach.
So when an employee calls in sick — especially on a Monday or a Friday — it could raise suspicions about whether she really is sick or just wants to create a long weekend without using a vacation day.
Last month, it came to light that the Peel District School Board near Toronto had a shortage of teachers on Mondays and Fridays in May as the weather got nicer. The reason? An inordinate amount of teachers were calling in sick.
In fact, Friday, May 31, saw the board’s highest rate of absenteeism ever — 1,664 out of 10,000 teachers called in sick. Not only did the high number of teachers calling in sick coincide with weekends and nice weather, but it also came in the wake of a new contract imposed by the Ontario government that significantly reduced the number of sick days and their ability to carry unused ones over.
There are several labour relations issues involved in contract and the sick day allotment that I’m not going to discuss here. Rather, the focus here is on an issue that many employers, both unionized and non-unionized, public and private, often have to deal with during the months of nice weather in particular — employees calling in sick under suspicious circumstances. What can an employer do?
Most employers have allotments of sick days for employees to use. They’re intended to give employees who fall ill a chance to rest and recover, and keep them out of the workplace where they could spread it to other employees. Sometimes, if the employer is suspicious, it can demand a doctor’s note. However, this usually doesn’t happen if the employee is only off for a day or two and is within her sick day allotment.
But taking a sick day does have consequences for the employer. It may have to find someone to replace the employee and fulfill her duties, either by someone else increasing her workload or another employee being paid to do it, which could cost the employer extra.
If nobody replaces the sick employee, then some work just doesn’t get done and there could be delays. Also, vacations days have a cost to them, so if an employee treats sick days as vacation days, there’s an added cost for the employer.
So if employees take sick days under suspicious circumstances, like on a nice summer day or on a Monday or Friday, any employer would want to nip that in the bud. It’s difficult for an employer to really know what the employer is doing unless the employee is observed doing something other than recovering.
Having policies in place that specify procedures for calling in sick and providing medical documentation if necessary. This can pave the way for discipline such has verbal or written warnings — though probably not dismissal, unless a pattern of absenteeism and repeated warnings is established.
On the other hand, some companies introduce summer hours or company activities to help employees enjoy the season a little more while working. It would be interesting to see if policies like that help reduce the amount of “sick days” taken during the warmer months.
Jeffrey R. Smith is the editor of Canadian Employment Law Today, a publication that looks at workplace law from a business perspective. He can be reached at [email protected] or visit www.employmentlawtoday.com for more information.
