Sick Pay

Dutch2

We do not have a PTO system - we still have sick pay separate from vacation, holiday, etc. We have had an employee ask if they would receive sick pay for time off to see a counselor. We “assume” this is health related since they asked about sick pay. This is the first time we have been asked this question. We pay sick time for illness only. Would it be out of line for us to require the employee to submit their doctor’s order to see a counselor before allowing sick pay to be used for this? Thanks.

NaeNae55

This really goes back to how your policies are worded and how you have handled things in the past. Before we changed to a PTO system, we let employees use sick pay to see a doctor even if it was just a check up and they weren't really sick. In our case, we would have considered a counselor, a therapist, or any similar type of visit as sick pay. Our sick leave did not specify 'physical' illness as opposed to emotional or mental.

Good luck!

Nae

cnghr

We have separate sick time, vacation time, etc. Our practice is to allow the use of sick time for doctor's appointments, including general wellness checkups, and we've never separated out emotional or mental from physical illness. We would allow the use of sick time for counseling, and wouldn't require a note in order to approve that use.

Dutch2

Thank you muchly for your responses. We had reached the same conclusion.

joannie

Same here, Dutch.