Sick Leave Use by Salaried Employee

Huttsi · April 2004

Can someone tell me if there is some federal rule that allows salaried employees to take sick leave without having it come out of their allowed sick leave?

We have an employee who goes to dialysis two days a week who is salaried and her time sheets don't reflect any sick leave or annual leave time use. In other words, she continues to be paid without using any sick or annual, this has been going on for at least a year.

Don D · May 2004

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-02-04 AT 12:11PM (CST)[/font][br][br]There is no 'federal rule' regarding an employer's leave policies, sick or otherwise. Leave policies are entirely up to the employer, unless your state has some sort of leave regulations, which most don't. It would appear that your employer has chosen to pay the employee while she is going for dialysis treatments, which is the employer's option. If the employee is on FMLA, the employer can, under the FML Act, dock the employee for those hours, but must have made a decision to not do that.

My experience is that employers allow exempt employees to attend medical appointments without charging leave, unless the absence is a day or more.

You say, "This has been going on for at least a year." Do we detect a bit of displeasure in your tone? People strapped to the dialysis deamon are literally fighting for their lives. Bring her a caserole tomorrow.

dbutton111 · May 2004

Doesn't the FLSA require that exempt employees be paid for a full day whether they worked that full day or not? I thought you could only use personal leave (sick, vacation, PTO) in full day increments.

Don D · May 2004

>Doesn't the FLSA require that exempt employees
>be paid for a full day whether they worked that
>full day or not? I thought you could only use
>personal leave (sick, vacation, PTO) in full day
>increments.

We should not confuse what the FLSA says about paying or deducting and docking pay, with leave programs that employers may have. Federal law is silent on such issues as how an employer administers such leave programs, or if in fact it even has them. Unless you have some state-specific law impacting this, the employer is at total liberty to have such leave programs or not and to allow/require employees to use them in whatever increments the employer wants to impose. I've worked in a job that required leave increments of one hour and the current one that excuses the absence totally.

Huttsi · May 2004

If employees are required per policy to fill out a s/l form for a dental or doctor's apt of a couple of hours and it is deducted from their s/l allowance, still talking about salaried employees here, my concern is do we have a disparate treatment issue here? What do you think, being gone two days a week for dialysis isn't really the issue, it's whether everyone's (salaried) being treated the same and is it consistent with existing policy. What do you think?

System · May 2004

Huttsi, yes, the FLSA and FMLA allow you to dock her pay or deduct from her sick leave if your policies allow it. Check your state law, though. And if you treat her more harshly than other sick employees, it could look like FMLA retaliation.

Putting the law aside for a moment, Don's response really struck a chord with me. I only have one kidney, and it's hard to imagine the hell your employee has to go through just to stay alive.

I don't know that I'd have the guts to get tough with her, especially since it's been going on so long. It would be easy if she had tons of sick leave and a rich husband, but I doubt it's that easy.

Good luck to you - and to her.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Sick Leave Use by Salaried Employee

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