AWOL and Medical Certificates

[Ankia]

Here's the scenario: employee sends manager a text to say she is ill with the ever popular gastro. Manager phones employee to advise that she is expected to go to doctor and still come to work and that sick leave is not authorised. Employee advised she will go to doctor and phone back. She doesn't phone back.

Upon return to work, the "gastro" employee produces medical certificate. We are of the opinion that this is AWOL and will go down unpaid. Are we being too harsh on our own policies here that if you don't follow the absence reporting procedure that you will not be entitled to paid sick leave?

[Dave A]

It's pretty hard to argue unauthorised absence when there is a valid medical certificate.

However, I'd suggest failure to comply with company procedures could be raised as a seperate disciplinary offence. This could merit a caution, written warning etc as appropriate to the offence.

[tec0]

In all honesty you get a lot of abusers and then you get real illness at a very bad time. Illness is not a convenience and cannot be controlled by the stuff or there management. Giving a written warning and disciplinary actions is a bit harsh. And I would argue against the disciplinary actions if it was me.

I would recommend that you send this person to another doctor for a “second opinion� Also check there history at your company; does this happen every month once every two months. Is it always the same doctor?

People that are real abusers have patterns that will repeat. I honestly would do my homework because giving somebody a warning because he or she was “sick� and didn’t follow company policy is not enough... You need evidence that this person wasn’t incapacitated before you can make the warning stick.

Also did you look at his or her medication? As a “qualified� safety officer I will recommend that you have a look at their medication. Make sure that, that person is “able� to work with that medication in his or her system. You can phone your local pharmacist to find out if the “medication� will affect the worker in question.

Remember if that person is using heavy medication and the medication have an effect and this person injure him or herself, you will have to explain.


Basically “DO your homework� before you take action...

[Marq]

Harsh - man, if that was me that was sick, I would check out the company policy with regard to resigning and go.

If you are sick - you must go to doc, get certificate and return to work and get authorisation to get sick leave.....come on get real. Here you on deaths door and now you must go back and present yourself to some oke in charge who is what...suddenly a doctor, so you can get him to say ok - you had better go home now and get some rest. Then the rest of the staff get what you got and now the whole company is in trouble. - LOL.

Get some proper relationship going with your staff, trust is a great thing to have at work, so you avoid these kind of hang ups and tensions. You are all going to have heart attacks with this anal retentive attitude - then where will you put your sick leave form?

[Frankincense]

There is a place called Hell....no mercy on the merciless!


"Manager phones employee to advise that she is expected to go to doctor and still come to work and that sick leave is not authorised"

So now you wish to carry more authority than a qualified General Practitioner?.... ....will you pay for her funeral and be the daughter to a bereaved family?

.....just this week an auditing firm supervisor denied a trainee a days sick leave as "not authorized"..next day at work she started bleeding on the loo, and was rushed to hospital for an emergency op. She is suing the firm and judgment in her favour is 100% certain. All is in writing on email.

I hope you are learning something here!

[Ankia]

Thanks for all the input and comments. I guess without the full context of the situation it's a bit hard to comment fairly, and reading my own synopsis does make us sound a bit merciless.

The context here is repeated absence on Saturdays; continuous failure to inform her manager before shift and poor attitude regardless of manager's efforts. The medication is immodium. I think this particular incident was the last straw on the camel's back. But a valid certificate remains a valid certificate.

In our environment, we have people being signed off by doctors for various ailments up to 9 times per year per individual. The impact this excessive unplanned absence has on the rest of the team and our customers is costing us dearly.

Surely you can agree that the General Practitioner that continuously signs someone off for gastro or migraine or flu but doesn't refer the person to a specialist does not have their patient's health as priority, and the employee who - during a meeting with managers who care about the health and workload - admits to not following a healthy diet & doesn't follow any exercise regime or doesn't take preventative measure to ward off the change of season bugs is making no proactive attempts to fulfill their contractual obligation to be at work and making sure they are doing everything REASONABLE to ensure they can be at work.

Why should the rest of the team take care of themselves and carry the weight of the work for a few that think that they are entitled to take the full 30 days sick leave in (often less than) 3 years?

[Marq]

Ah - OK different story.

Seems then you should do the one letter, two letter, three letter, door - system. It should be easy enough with bad attitudes and non communication etc. Staff that create a history do not seem to realise that they lead with the chin when it comes to firing issues. The answer should be easy for you. Ignore the medical issues and concentrate on the management issues when processing this.

[Dave A]

The context here is repeated absence on Saturdays; continuous failure to inform her manager before shift and poor attitude regardless of manager's efforts. The medication is immodium.

Years ago I had a staff member that had that pattern - it turned out that the witchdoctor had him on a routine purge once a week. However, it was the staff member's choice to do it on a Saturday. When I suggested that it could be done on a Sunday... Well, the idea didn't go down well.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

If she has produced the sick certificate then you need to pay her the sick leave. A company cannot authorize sick leave, per se. You can and should discipline her for not following company procedure. A warning for first offence.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

The legislation provides for incidences where a person is ill on a Friday, Monday and/or days before or after a public holiday. As Saturday is a day of work in your company, this would be the equivalent of a Friday. This piece of legislation allows you to take disciplinary action, despite the sick certificate. After this there is the more severe route of incapacity.

[Yvonne]

A labor lawyer once advised us that we had absolutely no right to query any information regarding the medical aspect of the absence.

This happened when a new employee was prescribed antidepressants (following a break up of a romance!) which had the side effect which resulted in her inability to remain focused at work, thus she came in some mornings and left before 10am as she "was unable to function", doctor backed it up with a certificate!

Our manager suggested she ask for a re-evaluation of the medication and request that her prescription be replaced with something that had less side effects!
Our labor consultant advised us that moment of stupidity (trying to give medical advice!) could result in a CCMA hearing and a substantial payment if the employee took it further!

Presently we have an employee who takes a day off a month to go to the clinic to fill a prescription, and have her blood pressure tested.

Our company provides each employee with a monetary benefit towards a medical aid, which they must arrange themselves.
Almost all of our employees choose not to subscribe to a medical and keep the money, so why should our company be penalised with a full day off instead of a local doctors visit?
Due to the 30 days of sick leave in a three year cycle, it will be some time before this employee will go onto unpaid sick leave.

I personally do not agree with the three year sick leave cycle, in my opinion it should be pro-rata on a annual "worked" basis, regardless of how long the employee has been employed, and we should be permitted to use our discretion without fear of creating a precedence for other employees.

I still think we need a lobbying body for employers of SME's!

Yvonne

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

A labor lawyer once advised us that we had absolutely no right to query any information regarding the medical aspect of the absence.

This happened when a new employee was prescribed antidepressants (following a break up of a romance!) which had the side effect which resulted in her inability to remain focused at work, thus she came in some mornings and left before 10am as she "was unable to function", doctor backed it up with a certificate!

Our manager suggested she ask for a re-evaluation of the medication and request that her prescription be replaced with something that had less side effects!
Our labor consultant advised us that moment of stupidity (trying to give medical advice!) could result in a CCMA hearing and a substantial payment if the employee took it further!

Presently we have an employee who takes a day off a month to go to the clinic to fill a prescription, and have her blood pressure tested.

Our company provides each employee with a monetary benefit towards a medical aid, which they must arrange themselves.
Almost all of our employees choose not to subscribe to a medical and keep the money, so why should our company be penalised with a full day off instead of a local doctors visit?
Due to the 30 days of sick leave in a three year cycle, it will be some time before this employee will go onto unpaid sick leave.

I personally do not agree with the three year sick leave cycle, in my opinion it should be pro-rata on a annual "worked" basis, regardless of how long the employee has been employed, and we should be permitted to use our discretion without fear of creating a precedence for other employees.

I still think we need a lobbying body for employers of SME's!

Yvonne

Employees may be entitled to the 30 days, this does not however preclude them from being disciplined. Where there is such absence a decision needs to be made, or differentiation, between misconduct an incapacity. Incapacity would include the anti depressant employee mentioned. It does however require a more formal pocedure and more onus on employee to help. You can send employee on 2 months UNPAID leave, for instance, to deal with the issue. Where the company is contributed o medical it is perhaps best to a) make the contribution directly to a medical aid or b) staff may only use certain doctors, the company prescribes and us the mone to pay these doctors. Both these changes would require a consultation process

[BBBEE_CompSpec]

If she produces a sick certificate but the certificate does not compy with the MASA Rules or she does not go to the doctor immediately she becomes ill you can refuse to pay for the day she never went to the doctor. MASA Rule 19 is quite clear on what has to appear on a doctor's certificate.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

If she produces a sick certificate but the certificate does not compy with the MASA Rules or she does not go to the doctor immediately she becomes ill you can refuse to pay for the day she never went to the doctor. MASA Rule 19 is quite clear on what has to appear on a doctor's certificate.

The issue of the certificate itself is quite correct. However an employee who is absent for one day does not need to produce a medical certificate to claim sick leave. However if the day of absence preceeds or is after a weekend or public holiday, then you can compel them to produce a sick certificate, failing which you need not pay them. The other occasion is where the employee is absent for the 1 day, but it has occurred twice within an 8 week period, then again a certificate must be produced failing which you need not pay them.

[Marq]

Just rounded out our policies and procedures that we use for our personnel. Very short and sweet and fairly clear. Perhaps you could use something similar...

1. Sickness: No excuses will be acceptable. We will no longer accept the Medical Examiner or Doctors statement as proof of illness as we believe that if you are able to go to the Doctor, you are able to come to work.
   
2. Leave of Absence for an Operation: We are no longer allowing this practice. We hired you as you are, and to have anything removed certainly makes you less than we bargained for.
   
3. Death, Other than Your Own: This is no excuse. If you can arrange the funeral services to be held late in the afternoon, however, we can let you off an hour early, provided all your work is up to date.
   
4. Death, Your Own: This will be accepted as an excuse, but we would like at least two weeks notice, as we feel it is your duty to teach someone else your job.
   
5. Quantity of Work: No matter how much you do, you'll never do enough.
   
6. Quality of Work: The minimum acceptable level is perfection.
   
7. Advice from the HR Manager: Eat a live toad first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
   
8. Your Manager is Always Right.
   
9. When the Manager is Wrong, Refer to Rule 8.