Punished for being sick?

watched the news tonight about how H1N1 "forced" people to take sick days earlier this year and now that their sick days are all used up, if H1N1 comes back stronger this fall they will be "forced" to take unpaid time off since they have no sick days left.

The kicker being that one of the labour organizations claims this is like PUNISHING the employees for being sick.

Uhh what? You get paid to work. You dont work.. you dont get paid. I dont understand are that advocating umlimited number of days off for illness?

Only if you work for any government, or any union. They don't want you to be punished for taking your sick days, when you get sick!
You have to be a civil servant or a union member to fully understasnd the concept, of being paid for when you aren't at work! lol

Great cigarellos, and great cigars and I am chain smoking in my gazeebo! Dean K when are you going back?

nicotine cures flU

rosencrentz wrote:Great cigarellos, and great cigars and I am chain smoking in my gazeebo! Dean K when are you going back?

LOL about a year

tick wrote:nicotine cures flU

a correlation can be made... true..

Isn't this on top of a report that federal government employees miss more work than the rest of the workforce. As I have always said, no one works for government, they are just employed.

what about people who are forced to stay home a mandatory number of days, or forced to go home if they show flu-like symtpoms? they deserve not to get paid because they got sick?

that would suck

Paid sick time is a benefit, not a right, nor an entitlement. It is something that an employer gives to employess gratuitiously, and like all benefits, it has a limit. I have been with my current employer for 20 years and have never come close to the 12 sick days which I am provided. As a matter of fact, I have gone up to 3 years without a paid sick day. With that in mind, if I am incapicitated due to the pig flu or any other ailment, I am sure that my employer will see fit to continue my paid sick time. You see, its as much on the employee as it is the employer. If someone takes a sick day everytime they sneeze or fart, then why should they expect any slack, and experience tells me those are the ones who will do the most bitching.

I sneezed when I was on my vacation. Does that mean I can take another day off?

O course, why should you be punished by having your vacation ruined by a sneeze

AdamX wrote:what about people who are forced to stay home a mandatory number of days, or forced to go home if they show flu-like symtpoms? they deserve not to get paid because they got sick?

that would suck

who forces people to stay home?

i know that where i work, it was policy for awhile that anyone showing flu-like symptoms was made to go home and stay home a mandatory 5 or 7 days or something like that. Some people were able to take work home and still get in a mostly full day from home, others were not able to do that and had to use sick time up. Those without sick time were outta luck as far as i know and had to stay home without pay.

so its not just a matter of people abusing sick time, in some cases people legitimately want to work and are unable to, and are being punished for it by not being paid.

I'm thinking things are going to get ugly come the fall flu season. I personally hope my workplace DOES enforce a policy of forcing those with flu-like symptoms to stay home if they have sick leave available, and if they do not then allowing them to use vacation time or advancing them sick time from the following year. This way everyone who is sick can stay home and recover without being at a loss financially, and they can keep their germs to themselves.

I HATE with a passion those people that come to work sick spreading their germs to the rest of us because they've either used all their sick time up (we only get 5 days) and can't afford to stay home, or even worse the bastards that have banked sick and vacation time but refuse to use it unless they're dying. I've seen people come into work looking like they're going to die from fever and running to the bathroom to throw up and still refuse to go home. Sorry but at that point they need to be forced to leave....the rest of us shouldn't be forced to be around them.

well if your company MAKES you stay home then yeah you should be paid, but if YOU decide to call in sick then too bad

as to the people that refuse to use sick days... if they could not bank them year after year and then get paid out and if they simply disappeared if not used, then you would not have the problem of people not using them.... ALSO if people were not allowed to use them as extra vacation days, again you would not have the problem of sick people coming to work and not using the sick days.

Maybe you should talk to your union and get that included in the next contract.

Deank, we can only carry over a maximum of 5 sick days and/or 2 weeks of vacation credit. Anything unused after that is automatically paid out annualy so you can never have anybody holding onto more than 10 sick days and 6 weeks vacation. The problem is some people just refuse to stay home when sick because they've become accustomed to using that payout as a "bonus" every year, for people getting 5 weeks paid out it's a sizeable chunk of change and I work with a lot of greedy bastards...lol.

Our union has actually fought with the membership over exactly what you suggested, having sick credits expire if not used to encourage people to actually use them when sick. Being a democracy though, it's been rejected by the membership as a whole (personally I don't agree with this). We're not the type of workplace where people end up with months of sick credits available. I just wish people would actually stay home when sick, in the long run it would keep more people at work and healthy.

I don't have a union, but I don't have a problem. Guess I saved some money by not having ot pay union dues.

grumpyrom wrote:Deank, we can only carry over a maximum of 5 sick days and/or 2 weeks of vacation credit. Anything unused after that is automatically paid out annualy so you can never have anybody holding onto more than 10 sick days and 6 weeks vacation. The problem is some people just refuse to stay home when sick because they've become accustomed to using that payout as a "bonus" every year, for people getting 5 weeks paid out it's a sizeable chunk of change and I work with a lot of greedy bastards...lol.

We're not the type of workplace where people end up with months of sick credits available. I just wish people would actually stay home when sick, in the long run it would keep more people at work and healthy.

So, in other words, those folks have had the benefit of being paid out for unused sick and vacation time/ Can't have your cake and eat it too.

Can have your cake and eat it too....that's the reason unions exist for gawd sake.

Suck the company dry and then move on.....

Freeman, I agree with your point on unused sick time but you can't argue against paying out unused vacation time it's the law in this country that you must be paid for your vacation time. The company chooses to pay out anything over 6 weeks vacation credit as they don't want anyone accumulating more than that and then taking 2 or 3 months off at once. Too difficult to schedule production if a good percentage of your workforce can get up and leave for 3 months.

JTS, is getting paid for vacation credit according to the provincial labour standards and in a manner of the employers own choosing "sucking the company dry"?

I am fully conversant with provincial labour legislation. If you don't want to be paid out for unused vacation, simple solution, take it. We don't allow the carry over of vacation either, but its simple. If an employee hasn't booked the time and time is running short, we'll book it for them. The scheduling of vacation is considered a management right.

Right but that's by your employer's own choice, my employer chooses to pay out rather than forcing people to take vacation. Different industries and probably different HR priorities. Personally I wish more people did take their vacation and sick time, it would make a happier workplace for all.