Q: Can an employer insist on medical documentation for unscheduled sick leave?
I am a unionized employee and earn 13 sick days per year. If an employee calls in sick when a shift is understaffed, the managers insist on a doctor’s note. When coverage is sufficient, documentation is seldom necessary unless an employee is out for more than three days.
The union says that if management asks for a doctor’s note when we are understaffed, employees must provide one. If they can’t, management will dock their pay for the time off. Is this legal?
A: I’m afraid it is. Federal labor laws do not require employers to offer paid time off, such as sick days. And when they do, they set the terms.
So an employer can require you to present a doctor’s note before agreeing to pay you the sick days, said Carmelo Grimaldi, an employment lawyer and partner at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone in Mineola, N.Y.
Some exceptions apply, though.
If a union or employment contract spells out the conditions for paying sick days, the company has to abide by those terms.
And the company can’t legally target a race or gender of employees with the demand for a doctor’s note, he said. Your company’s practices seem to be based on staffing needs rather than discrimination, Grimaldi said.
“It appears that the employer … is merely treating the payment of sick days differently when it is understaffed,” he said.
Even though your union representative says the company’s action is legal, perhaps for your own satisfaction you should peruse the contract’s language on sick days.
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Carrie Mason-Draffen is a columnist for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper. E-mail her at yourmoney@tribune.com.
