Requiring vacation to be used instead of sick time

funkysan

I have an exempt employee who has been employed for only 6 months. This employee has missed work or left early 18 times since her hire date. Is it illegal to require her to use her vacation days when she is going to be absent since she is missing or leaving work so much?

Ruskanen

>I have an exempt employee who has been employed for only 6 months.
>This employee has missed work or left early 18 times since her hire
>date. Is it illegal to require her to use her vacation days when she
>is going to be absent since she is missing or leaving work so much?

Since no one else has replied, I'll give you my inexperienced opinion of what I would do. If the employee has worked any part of the day, you have to pay her for the full day. I'm not sure if you can require her to use her vacation days. But, if you have a good attendance policy in place you can use progressive steps to discipline the employee. Explain what your standards are (For example, "Be here every day on time and more than one absence an month or two tardies or leave earlies is considered excessive.") Ask her to schedule her absences ahead of time and bring documentation. Tell her she must improve in the next month or she will get a verbal warning, then a written warning, then suspension, and finally termination. Exempt employees are exempt from overtime pay, not from following the company attendance policy.

Gar

This appears to be a disciplinary action matter. The only part of the solution that I disagree with is the suspension. Employees with attendance problems obviously want time off. I, therefore, never recommend suspensions for attendance problems.