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How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace
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How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace
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Hi, I'm an Australian working on a research program where I am attempting to develop a tool kit that will assist employers to manage employee absence from the work due to chronic illnesses such as - c
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Forums  »  Topic Forums  »  Benefits & Compensation  »  How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

posted at 1/5/2010 11:59 AM EST
Posts: 2
First: 1/5/2010
Last: 1/6/2010
Hi, I'm an Australian working on a research program where I am attempting to develop a tool kit that will assist employers to manage employee absence from the work due to chronic illnesses such as - cancer treatment, depression, asthma, diabetes etc. Some people have paid leave options whilst others don't and disability insurance doesn't come into play until their has been 90 days of continuous absence. How do your workplaces manage chronic illness absences? How do you get the other employees to support their ill colleagues?

How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

posted at 1/6/2010 6:47 AM EST
Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004
Last: 9/13/2011
Good luck in your studies.

Where I work (large mid-western organization in the USA) we offer about 500 hours of short-term disability that starts after 40 hours have been missed.

The organizational culture is big on promoting social capital (i.e. low turnover, pro life-balance, all performance appraisals assess elements of teamwork, etc.) so there is a strong expectation that people will help each other. Of course that varies across work units and workloads. Sometimes someone from another area within the organization will "float" to fill the labor gap or formally hire a temp from a pool of on-call workers.

How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

posted at 1/6/2010 11:19 AM EST
Posts: 2
First: 1/5/2010
Last: 1/6/2010
Thanks for the information. Do you have workplace policies or procedures that document the process to access this leave? If so are you able to forward me a copy to hanstis@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au. also, do you docment your staff support in your annual report? Or in communication back to your staff?
Thank you again for the response.
Helen

How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

posted at 1/6/2010 3:00 PM EST
Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006
Last: 9/14/2011
Most of the answers you are going to get are going to be based in the United States where there are a couple of major federal laws that have to deal with leave (FMLA and ADA). Then there are specific laws that are dependent on state law. With 50 states, those are all over the place.

FMLA is very specific on when and how leave must be given. Under the ADA, it depends on whether leave can be a "reasonable accommodation" that doesn't place "undue hardship" on the employer.

Then for pay during leave time, there are only a few states that have state mandated disability (NY, CA and a few others). There is no federal level disability. Past that, the employer can fund disability insurance or can give employees access to fund through a payroll deduction. There are also individual insurance policies that can be bought to help during a disability period.

How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

posted at 1/10/2010 2:35 AM EST
Posts: 4
First: 1/10/2010
Last: 1/12/2010
Re: your last statement about employees supporting individuals on long term illneses, US federal employees have a "leave sharing" program where employees can donate some of their annual leave to an employee who is expected to run out of their annual and sick leave benefits due to a long-term illness.

The US Office of Personnel Management has a public link to the policy.

Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » How do you manage chronic illness in the workplace

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