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!

[BBBEE_CompSpec]

Sick Leave Entitlements:
1. The Company will provide for ___ paid working days in a 36 month sick leave cycle, that is, an amount of paid sick leave equal to the number of days the employee would normally work during a period of six weeks.
2. During the first six months of employment, an employee is entitled to one day's paid sick leave for every 26 days worked.
3. In the event of serious illness or accident, where additional sick leave may be required, refer to the Policy - Serious Medical Incapacity - Temporary or Permanent Disability.
4. To be eligible to receive paid sick leave, an employee will be required to produce a Medical Certificate signed by a registered medical practitioner stating the nature of the incapacity and its duration in respect of
i) any bona fide illness which results in their absence from work for a period of more than one working day, and /or
ii) one day’s absence which is taken the day before or after the employee’s day off or a paid public holiday, or
iii) any eight week period where an employee has been on paid sick leave on two or more occasions without producing a Medical Certificate. The employee will be required to produce a Medical Certificate for each further instance of sick leave within the next eight week period.
5. This shall in no way limit management’s rights to take disciplinary action where the attendance record of any employee indicates a possible abuse of sick leave.
6. A Medical Certificate is only prima facie proof that an employee has been on bona fide sick leave. The Company retains the right to query any Medical Certificate, and where it believes that such Medical Certificate does not justify being paid sick leave, the Company may legitimately refuse to pay the employee sick leave. The requirements of a Medical Certificate are the following:-
The Medical Certificate must state the nature of the medical incapacity; the duration of the incapacity; the date on which the employee consulted a Medical Practitioner; and must be
signed by a Medical Practitioner registered with the South African Medical and Dental Council.
7. Where an employee has been on sick leave for excessive periods, the Company reserves the right to conduct an enquiry into the employees capacity (or incapacity) to perform his job, and to take whatever lawful steps it deems appropriate, including but not limited to the termination of the employee’s contract of employment with the Company.
8. Managers, supervisors and employees are referred to the provisions of section 22 and 23 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, regarding Sick Leave.
9. Employees who have been on sick leave are required to complete the Sick Leave form, and attach any medical certificate to such leave form. Leave forms must be submitted to the ___________________ department.

[BBBEE_CompSpec]

A number of myths exist regarding medical certificates, e.g.

1. that employers cannot address employees regarding their absenteeism due to medical reasons until the employees have exhausted their sick leave in a particular cycle
2. that employees can stay away from work for up to two days, often linked to weekends or public holidays, without being ill, or
3. that medical certificates cannot be questioned..


The true facts are that employees must first of all be too ill to work in order to claim sick pay for periods of absence from work. If the employer has proof that the employee was not ill enough not to work, disciplinary action can follow for abuse of sick leave or absence without leave. In both cases the employee cannot claim payment for the period of absence.

Because the word "day" is not defined in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (the “BCEA”), for purposes of the sick leave provisions, it can be assumed as meaning a "calendar" day. The employer may also require a medical certificate when the employee is absent on a Friday or a Monday because the employee is then absent from work for longer than the two days provided for in section 23 of the BCEA. The same applies when an employee is absent for reasons of ill health on more than two occasions in any 8-week period. The employer will then be able to require a medical certificate for every day's absence due to ill health for the remainder of his or her current sick leave cycle.

Medical certificates only constitute indirect evidence of an employee's illness. As documents "cannot speak for themselves", the employer can question either the authenticity or the content of the certificate if there is reason to do so. In this regard employers would be well advised to use the services of their own in-house medical personnel or that of a consulting medical practitioner before rejecting a certificate. The bottom-line, however, is that all medical certificates must comply with section 23 of the BCEA before they can be accepted, i.e. there must not be any reason to doubt their authenticity and it must be stated clearly that in the practitioner's own opinion, the employee was too ill or injured to work for the entire period of absence. This would require some proof of the fact that the patient was actually examined by the practitioner and an indication that the practitioner was of the professional opinion that the employee was unfit for work for the entire period of absence. A certificate that merely reflects what the employee told the practitioner does not meet these requirements.

It is recommended that employers, as part of their efforts to combat absenteeism, develop a clear policy regarding absence due to ill health. They must only accept medical certificates that comply with the legal requirements and provide sufficient proof of authenticity and proof of their contents.

Finally, the policy should state clearly that the employer may set standards for acceptable levels of absenteeism and that if an employee's level of absenteeism is deemed unacceptable, it could ultimately result in dismissal.

[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.