Boss Institutes New Policy That Says Each Time An Employee Is One Minute Late To Work They Lose One Of Their Sick Days
Is it ethical? No. But is it legal? Well, it's complicated.
Diego Cervo / Shutterstock.com In many jobs, the worst part of getting sick isn't the illness but the ridiculous ways your employer tries to punish you for taking a day off.
One employer is going viral for their cruel new sick day policy — one that is likely to land them in legal jeopardy.
The boss' new policy punishes employees for being late by taking away their sick days.
The U.S. is one of the few wealthy countries in the world that does not offer some kind of federal provision of sick leave for workers. And no one benefits from this absence of support — studies have shown the lack of adequate sick time actually costs employers money due to loss in productivity.
It also causes totally inhumane and ridiculous situations like this one that has recently gone viral and has workers all over the internet incensed.
The policy requires a doctor's note for sick time and docks workers a sick day each month if they're a minute late four times.
The notice is a travesty for grammar and syntax as much as it is for the fair treatment of employees.
"Please be advised: Due to too many employees abusing the system," the notice read, "Starting today any employee calling in sick. Such employee will not get paid for a sick day unless a doctor's note is presented."
Photo: Twitter/X
It gets worse from there. "Any employee clocking in late (after 8:01 a.m.) 4 days' out of each calendar month will automatically lose one (1) sick day."
Never mind the fact that we are still, technically, in a pandemic. And never mind the fact that America's healthcare system is so overrun and so broken that it often takes weeks if not months to even get a doctor's appointment, let alone a note.
All that policies like this accomplish is infuriating workers and making them go elsewhere. More importantly, though, there are legalities involved. And it turns out this employer probably should have consulted a lawyer before posting this.
Unfortunately, sick day policies like this one are likely legal in most of the country. However, there are important exceptions.
Other than extreme cases covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act, employers are not even required by federal law to provide sick time to employees in the first place.
And since sick time is in most cases not considered a wage in the way paid vacation or "paid time off" (PTO) is, it is usually fair game to be withdrawn by an employer.
But state laws often differ. The District of Columbia and the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, for instance, have their own laws requiring and protecting some form of sick time.
Cities like San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle have their own local laws, too. Lawyers say it's important to know both your local employment laws and the provisions of your job contracts and employee handbooks to ensure employers aren't violating policies when creating new rules.
When it comes to the doctor's note issue, things are a lot more clear — and this employer might want to lawyer up.
Basically, employers are allowed to ask for a doctor's note under the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, which governs many aspects of patient privacy.
But under the rules of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, employees are not required to actually furnish a note or any medical details of any kind to their employer, nor can they be fired for refusing to do so.
In fact, department store chain Dillard's was forced to settle a $2 million class action lawsuit in 2008 over such rules, due to a long-standing company policy demanding documentation for sick days and terminating employees for refusing to comply.
America's ridiculous, predatory "at-will" employment laws, however, mean workers can be fired for calling in sick in most cases.
But there's a catch — were the worker to file a wrongful termination suit with the Department of Labor, the employer would have to prove that the worker was fired for just cause or poor performance.
Under the laws of the ADA, illness is not sufficient cause, and the EEOC protects workers from being fired out of retaliation, which was the basis of the Dillard's decision.
Bottom line, America's sick pay policies are … well, pretty terrible from a worker's point of view, but workers still have recourse. So unless this employer is lucky enough to have an entire staff of people who don't know their rights, they are likely to end up in hot water.
As the Twitter account @[Expletive]YouIQuit sarcastically put it in their repost of the policy, "Oh boy they are going to have such a fun time in court." Good luck with all that.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.