Absenteeism
smurray
2 Posts
Is it acceptable to ask for a dr. note after an employee is absent for three consecutive days? This is not in our current policy.
Is the employer required to pay for the dr. visit or the fee for the note?
Is the employer required to pay for the dr. visit or the fee for the note?
Comments
As a good employee relations practice and to be fair to an employee, the employer needs to "put the employee on notice" before, or as the claim for emergent absence is being made, if any verification is required and what it must be and when it is due. Otherwise, the employee, can reasonably expect that the mere request and the supervisor's acknolwedging it will be sufficient for authorization of the absence and use of available accrued time benefits.
When you ask for verification AFTER the fact, you create problems. For example, perhaps the employee didn't go to the doctor when she was ill. And when she gets back to work, you then tell her to go to the doctor and have the doctor verify that she was ill for the last 3 days -- that doesn't, obviously, make sense. No doctor will verify some medical condition that he or she has no knowledge about.
I have seen doctors walk that thin line -- pleasing their patient and not saying something of which they have no professional knowledge. Some doctors had and may still have on their "doctor's excuse" slips, not only the doctor's statement that the patient has "whatever" and is unable to work until "whatever date, but another statement, "Patient reports that he or she was ill and unable to work on 'whatever' dates", that the doctor can mark instead of the first. Of course, I've never accepted the latter statement as verifcation of the claim of illness.
I would just bite the bullet...consider the absences as valid, and start correcting the problem for the future. In other words, make sure that you have a policy that will let supervisors and employees know that an employee calling in on an emergent basis for an absence that he or she may be required to provide acceptable evidence as determined by the supervisor before the absence is authorized. Then get training out to your supervisors on when and how to make that determination and when to inform employees that verification is being required.
You may have a policy that permits the requirment for every emergent situation, or, as I mentioned, you can let the supervisor determine what to do on individual circumstances. For example, in the latter situation, you may not need verification from an employee who has good attendance but does call in ill occsionally. On the other hand, you may need to get verification from an employee who seems has patterned absences or is claiming all sorts of emergent reasons, or has been caught misrepresenting information, or is "excessivley absent." Thus, the supervisor may require verificaton to deal with an ongoing problem with one employee, or in some cases, to deal with an employee on one occasion (e.g., the employee calls in on Friday before a 3-day weekend, to suddently report an illness). The policy would only establish the authority of the supervisor to require it, leaving it up to the supervisor to implement it when needed.
I've never seen the employer be required to pay for the doctor's visit or the note since the employer did not order the medical visit. That would be the employee's responsibility.
The only thing I'd add: If I just have a cold and don't go to a doctor for it and my boss wants me to go to a doctor for the sole purpose of getting a note, then I'd expect the company to pony up for my co-pay.
James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers
We instituted this policy after an employee had a stroke and was hospitalized for a long period of time. We wanted to be sure that the employee was capable of resuming his job duties, and would not be a safety risk to himself or others.
An employee may have an economic need to start collecting a paycheck again, regardless of whether or not s/he is truly capable of returning to work. Our intent is that the "return to work" form would help prevent that, for the safety and well-being of the employee, co-workers, and the company.
The company does not pay for any costs incurred by the employee to have the return to work form completed by a doctor.
The intent of the return to work form is not to verify the absence.