Sick Employees

System

Can we legally force an employee to go home whom we feel is sick with the flu. She won't go home because she has no sick time left and she says that she can't afford to. We are under 50 employees and in the State of Wisconsin.

deniseE

I don't know that any law exists that requires workers to be "healthy" upon reporting for work; however, your policies may include a provision that requires an employee to be "fit for duty"...if she is unable to complete essential job tasks...then she is not fit. And, depending on the kind of job, could be placing others at risk...not only for catching the flu, but for other safety issues as well.

It's such a catch 22...we want our employees to muddle through and not call off at the first sniffle...but at the same time...we don't want the illnesses spreading around the office either.

could she anticipate the leave time??? make it a win/win situation?? she gets home and gets better and you hopefully stop the spread of the illness?

Parabeagle

Our policy specifically provides supervisors the authority to send an employee home on sick leave (paid or unpaid) if that supervisor does not feel the employee is well enough to work. I'm not aware of any law that would prevent you from taking similar action.

rad

I would ask that she be seen by a doctor that day, pay her if you have to, and have the Dr make the decision. If she really has the flu, its not likely she would be able to get out of bed to come to work (its a real bad one this year), she probably has a really bad cold.

awilliams

Sandy,

You posted a great question - and one that is very timely this time of year when employees are getting sick, and many have used up their sick or vacation days, or want to save them to use over the holidays. In fact, the January issue of HR Frontline (which all subscribers receive as a benefit of their subscription) discusses this very issue. First, look to your absence policy first, and see if it addresses this issue. Many do not. Second, treat this as any run-of-the-mill performance issue. Is the employee able to perform the job? If not, send her home. A secondary issue, yet one which is very important, is that you do not want one employee to infect a whole department with her flu germs. Therefore, you may want to err on the cautious side and tell her to go home.

Another issue to look into is whether her illness is covered by the FMLA. The flu and the common cold may be covered based on how severe they are.

Finally, you are within your rights to ask for a doctor's release before she is able to return to work.


Anne Williams
Attorney Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers, LLC

turbo

We have similar scenarios. Employees coming to work who are really sick because they don't have sick time. We really don't earn 'much' sick itme here - five days year accrued over the year. Unfortunately I had a graphic designer who was very sick as was his son with the flu last month - he came in - I asked him to go home because he would only be prolonging his illness and he was coughing and really sick - I didn't want to get it or to spread it. He was miserable and agreed to go home. We did have work that had to get out that day and the next that only he could do...I asked him if he thought he could work from home (I am an the HR Diretor and the Marketing Director) - he said yes - he has a home office for freelance work. He did the work - about 4 or 5 hours worth finished and ad and sent it for publication- he kept time and stayed home 2 days total (most of the time without pay - he had no earned sick days - was only with the company 6 months). He turned in the time - as he is paid hourly. The company didn't want to pay him and I was dicisplined for allowing him to work from home - because this company doesn't allow hourly workers to work from home.

I am salaried and was supposed to be off on some vacation days during the holidays and then had a sick day last week. I worked two of the vacation days partially during the day at home to get 'must be dones today' items completed that were left on my VM by the company president- when I ath ome sick in bed last week - I worked from home half a day because something else came up....

bottom line I wasn't given back any vacation credit and the sick day was counted as a sick day.

That being said. We have a VP who works from home all the time, and an owner/director both are not docked for vacation days when not in the office.

How to handle this. By the way the graphic designer was paid the hours - I made sure of it. He is got the job done for us - and he is a struggling single father who only drug himself to work that day sick to get the company's deadlines met and also so he could be paid. Thank goodness - he went home - as he did have the flu.

marc

Consistently administering leave policies is one of the more difficult aspects of the HR profession. You have described some of the issues very well. The fact that a VP and one of the owner/directors works at home all the time shows a "Do as we say, not as we do" attitude. You can have different leave policies for different groups of employees, but everyone should be treated consistently within the group. If you do not have those layered leave policies, then the company is living with exposure. One lawsuit or DOL audit might teach this company the error of their ways, but until the risk side of the risk/reward equation presents itself in a real way, you will probably have to live with this.

Another way the company will be effected by this behavior has to do with employee turnover. That is also very costly, and the more people that become disgruntled with the inconsistent and biased administration and therefore leave, the costlier it will be. Someone will need to understand the impact on the bottom line before any real change is embraced.

My guess is that you are not highly enough placed to be an immediate agent for change, but perhaps you can plant some seeds. In the meantime, update your resume and see if there are greener pastures in your area.