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| I am an HR Manager but I have never heard this before..........someone I know works for a company that gives employees 5 days paid sick annually. However they receive warnings and eventual termination of they use it? Is that legal? My understanding is that if you give employees paid time off they should be able to use it without any negative results. Only when they have exhausted their available time does it become a performance issue. Basically they give employees time off but they are discouraged disciplinarily. Any opinions? Thank you
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| Yes, I've heard of that. If a company counts occurrences and disciplines based on number of occurrences, employees could get into a situation where they could be disciplined for using their sick time.
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| Do you have a policy on sick leave? Is it "sick leave" or "PTO"? I'd abide by the policy, if there is one. If not, find out what the practice is. Are employees disciplined because they are abusing the sick leave (calling in sick on Mondays or Fridays, or possibly calling in sick the day before/after a holiday?), look for patterns. Does the policy specify if a medical certificate is required? In addition, California law allows employees to use one half of their allotted sick leave to take care of a sick parent, spouse, or child. It sounds like you need more information.
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I learned long ago that you can't compensate an employee with paid time off whether it be sick time, vacation time, kin care, PTO etc... and then 'ding' them when they use it. Even though some companies get away with it, bottom line is that if they haven't been challenged, they have been fortunate. Even to make a valid arguement however, a company will need to have very specific guidelines in place surrounding the use of any paid time off, when they can request it and whether it can be 'cashed out'. Sick Leave is not to be confused with other benefits that are considered accrued 'earned time' like PTO or Vacation. Sick Leave by its very nature and the ramification of KinCare to it can itself be argued that it necessitates using it in times where advance notice is harder to give.
CFRA and FMLA may play a role in some of the uses of sick leave as will attendance-step accumulation programs and contractual agreements with the union, if there is one. In our unionized company's specific case, there are no provisions for sick leave, however they can break a week or two of vacation to be used day-at-a-time. There is also an attendance step program in place and there are provisions for 'cashing out' vacation days. Because of the nature of the 24-hour operation, employees can not "call off" sick without getting an attendance ding, unless they have an approved FMLA case. But they can 'cash out' a day of vacation if they have missed a day of work because a 'cash out' is not tied to a certain work day.
I agree that it sounds as if you need more information to understand what is at play here.
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