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Eliminating Sick Days
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Eliminating Sick Days
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My company is considering replacing our current policy of granting 7sick days per year, to one where there is no sick day entitlement at all. In this scenario, employees would be paid for sick days as
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » Eliminating Sick Days
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Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/18/2012 11:52 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 4
First: 5/18/2012 Last: 9/6/2012 |
My company is considering replacing our current policy of granting 7sick days per year, to one where there is no sick day entitlement at all. In this scenario, employees would be paid for sick days as needed and managers would manage for excessive absenteeism. My question is, do any of you have experience with such a policy? I am concerned as to how we would handle intermittent FMLA leaves. How would we cap the paid days? |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/18/2012 2:10 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 2
First: 4/23/2012 Last: 5/18/2012 |
The last company that I worked for did not have designated sick days. If an employee called in sick they were paid for all missed days. Believe me when I say that the abuses were many and frequent. Managers rarely, if ever handled excessive abuses. It is a real morale buster for the amployees that do not abuse it and quite the opposite for the ones that do. |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/18/2012 2:17 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 148
First: 9/29/2011 Last: 12/10/2012 |
PixieJean's comments regarding combing vacation with sick is a good idea. Add 5 days of sick leave to your annual vacation entitlement and it certainly sounds good to a potential recruit. If someone is going to take a sick day, they'll think twice since that's one less day of vacation AND it gets that day's wages off the accrued liability column. |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/24/2012 9:58 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 3
First: 5/23/2012 Last: 5/29/2012 |
I agree, count sick days as vacation days. With this solution you will eliminate the excessive use of sick days. But then again if someone is really sick and needs to stay in hospital, then all the vacation time is gone, which will cause some frustration... |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/25/2012 12:03 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 35
First: 11/7/2011 Last: 10/30/2012 |
You'll need to clearly define "excessive" as different managers will have different ideas about that. (I know one that goes on the termination warpath any time someone's so much as one minute late! This goes over real well with our long-term hogh-performing hard-to-replace employees!) However, as soon as you define "excessive" you're back to a set number of sick days... |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/25/2012 12:41 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 148
First: 9/29/2011 Last: 12/10/2012 |
Rather than calling them "sick days", call them "unplanned absences"; eg, time off that was not requested in advance. Then develop a set standard per period of time beyond which any unplanned absences will result in disciplinary action. For example, if an employee is tardy/absent more than 4 times in any rolling six month period, then a warning is given. |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 5/30/2012 1:43 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 14
First: 10/31/2011 Last: 5/30/2012 |
I have to agree with much of the above. My company switched from Vacation/Sick to PTO in 2005. the conversion was a little tough because of the previous policy, which gave associates 6 sick days per year, but increased that to 12 after 5 years of employment AND allowed them to carryover. Some of those with over 5 years that were able to carryover had banked quite a bit of time. We took that time and put it in a separate "bank" and called it CAT time for catastrophic time, and allow those associates to use the CAT time, up to 30 days in a rolling 12 month period. Our PTO system accrues starting at 6 months of full time employment, however an associate may at any time go into the negative by up to 40 hours, and may carryover 80 hours into their next anniversary year. The way we handle intermittent FMLA is that anyone who is in that status must turn in a sheet each pay period showing number of hours worked, and number of FMLA hours taken, As far as the PTO, they can take that on their FMLA days, or go unpaid. Seems to work well for us. As said before, those with the tendency to abuse, see each of those days they take as a reduction in their "vacation time". |
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Re: Eliminating Sick Days
posted at 7/19/2012 10:45 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 4
First: 5/18/2012 Last: 9/6/2012 |
Thanks everyone for your input. I agree that PTO is the way to go but our sr. management is not in favor of that. And it is also correct that 'excessive' is subjective and as soon as you identify a number that represents 'excessive' you have an 'entitlement'. I think at the very least we will eliminate our carryover provision for sick days. That may be a compromise. |
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