Over 800 Wpg School Division 1 - sick day during blizzard

Does the call in software have "inclement weather" or "other"?

I bet they selected "sick" to avoid the hassle of explaining why they couldn't be bothered to try to get to work.

No matter how you cut it, 4 times the average number of staff taking a day off because of a "mild" blizzard is unacceptable. SO how much did it cost in terms of lost, paid time plus additional costs for substitutes and overtime in the case of caretakers. The fact that "its in the budget" is irrelevant, as its assumed that those people are actually productive when they are being paid.

Working in a social service agency, it is difficult to get the point across that there is a cost of lost time. As there is no concrete measure of productivity, staff, and some managers, don't appreciate the impact of idle and lost time. Thats what the issue is here.

"And as has been mentioned on the comments section of the Free Press, what doctor is going to write a note for an "illness" that happened 2 weeks ago???????????"

no legimate doctor AND I find the whole process of a note for one days illness ludicous . If I am well enough to wait in a doctors office for a note.. I am well enough to be at work,

If one choses to live outside the city one must expect to have this happen. Suck it up teachers, or move back to the city in which you work.

grumpy old man wrote:Does the call in software have "inclement weather" or "other"?

These are not options on the call in system. But I bet they will be in the future.

Perhaps holly could enlighten us, but I assume that there is something in the collective agreement for teachers that a doctors note "may" be required for any sick day. We have adopted such a policy for exactly this type of situation, where it is suspicious that the person phoning in sick, may not actually be sick. Of course, someone who faithfully shows up for work, rarely misses, would not be asked for such a note, but the other person who regularly takes a day each month, Monday or Friday may be told to get a note the next time they call in sick.

Bottom line, 800 people phoning in sick were not all sick. If you choose to live out of town, then be prepared for the ramifications of that. If anyone of these people were not sick, then buck up and say I'm not coming in because....., but don't expect to be paid under the guise of being sick.

and in related news.

Indianapolis is delaying school start for 2 hours because of the last time so many school bus drives called in "sick"

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Morning-after-Indianapolis-Public-Schools-impose-2-hour-delay-morning-after-Super-Bowl.html

"
After the Colts beat the Chicago Bears in the 2007 Super Bowl, so many bus drivers called in sick the next morning that IPS officials cancelled classes systemwide."

Probaby a lot of hung over teachers as well didn't make for an active learning environment.

From what I remember of the contract I signed many years ago and most likely the contract wording may have changed since then, the only requirement was if a teacher was absent for more than 3 days, a doctor's note would be required. So I could have taken 3 days off before I had to provide proof that I was in fact sick with a nasty cold, flu, migraine, etc. If on the 4th day I was still not there then I had to provide this certificate. I have been out of the public system for many years now so not sure what the current agreement is but that is the standard agreement for most major companies including the international one I work for now. I do know that my husband's agreement is after 3 days a doctor's note is required and he is part of WANTE which is the Wpg Association of Non Teaching Employees (aides, clerks, librarians, etc).

yep that is the standard agreement nowadays in the private sector. Mind you that has a lot to do with STD kicking in to.

Deank wrote:yep that is the standard agreement nowadays in the private sector. Mind you that has a lot to do with STD kicking in to.

STD = sexually transmitted disease???

ya you betcha.. pretty common when working in the privates.

Freeman wrote:Perhaps holly could enlighten us, but I assume that there is something in the collective agreement for teachers that a doctors note "may" be required for any sick day. We have adopted such a policy for exactly this type of situation, where it is suspicious that the person phoning in sick, may not actually be sick. Of course, someone who faithfully shows up for work, rarely misses, would not be asked for such a note, but the other person who regularly takes a day each month, Monday or Friday may be told to get a note the next time they call in sick.

Bottom line, 800 people phoning in sick were not all sick. If you choose to live out of town, then be prepared for the ramifications of that. If anyone of these people were not sick, then buck up and say I'm not coming in because....., but don't expect to be paid under the guise of being sick.

Bottom line 800 sounds like a lot...but 800 out of 4500 is 17.7% of total employees. About the same amount I would say that didn't make it in to my workplace that day as well. Roughly 1 in 6. Thats not a huge percentage.

ahh buy grumpyrom a slight difference with mine and your work places... were temp workers called in to replace our jobs? nope.

In my workplace only one person could not get in and she lives out-of-town... So about 95% succeeded in getting in. Given the conditions that is a reasonable percentage. And really, that is the issue. The conditions were not that bad at all. Certainly not what one would expect in a "blizzard".

17.7% is outrageous IMO.

I don't buy the 'Couldn't make it to school argument'

Mind you, Wife is a teacher,she went to work ( even though she only had 14 students). She worked at a rural division one year that would often cancel classes but require teachers to report during inclement weather. She enjoyed having the day at school to do correcting and lesson planning.

Were the ones that called in doing that at home? Or not?

I heard on the radio, some kitchen renovation store thought that they'd be really slow because of the storm, but were really busy with...you guessed it.....mostly teachers.

grumpy old man wrote:In my workplace only one person could not get in and she lives out-of-town... So about 95% succeeded in getting in. Given the conditions that is a reasonable percentage. And really, that is the issue. The conditions were not that bad at all. Certainly not what one would expect in a "blizzard".

17.7% is outrageous IMO.

Looks like it was more like 400 persons, or about 9%, according to CBC. CJOB says it was 800 (200 of them teachers.)

And no one on here knows what other circumstances there were that had some of these employees to call in "sick" for the day. Some may have had children that were at home that could not go to school because their buses were not running because of the weather. Again if this is the case, there is not an option on the computerized system for this type of absence. We can all speculate why these employees were "sick" but we really don't know how many of them actually were ill.

That number could easily be found by subtracting the number of absentees from the day after.

I don't buy this "24 hour" flu crap btw....26 ounce perhaps.

If someone called in and said they were unable to come to work because of the road conditions or child issues, it's one thing, but to say you are sick when you are not, presents other issues....honesty for one.

JTF wrote:If someone called in and said they were unable to come to work because of the road conditions or child issues, it's one thing, but to say you are sick when you are not, presents other issues....honesty for one.

Thats the point!! JTF is right, as usual.

Agreed.

I also am interested in if they have included the number that are off on Long Term Disability in those counts. If so, then they would be inflated. It seems that that profession is more susceptable to LTD claims than average. The LTD premiums they pay are nuts, and since premiums are related to claims.....

If true...

I wonder why they have so many LTD claims? Stress? Cancer?

Well, working 200 or so days a year is extremely stressful....especially in those conditions (working with kids). lol

Cry me a river eh.

Yes but again given the fact that the computerized system limits the choices, the employees can only work within what the system allows them to. If the system is set up the be dishonest by not having "weather conditions" as an option then is that the fault of the employees or the employer? I would think the employer who in this case is the one that required this system in the first place and assisted with the design when it was first implemented.
LTD or STD would not be part of the equation because these staff members would not have had to call in "sick" for that day. This fiasco is looking at only the staff members who "called in sick" for that one day. If you are on LTD or STD there is a term posistion employee that is replacing you.

What options are available holly?