Mandatory Sick Pay

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Employers need to realize that people have lives outside of work. If an employee needs to take a sick day for whatever reason (waiting for the air conditioner guy to come, pipes in your house burst, ate a bad burrito the night before) it shouldn't be a financial burden upon them.

Every employer I have ever had has been fairly accomodating in such circumstances, but employees need to realize that their job is not a right and that there is more going on than just their own lives. In small businesses particularly, the attendance of a single employee can have a major impact on quarterly revenue and the welfare of the company and all their coworkers' livleyhoods. The whole idea of being an employee is that you are paid a wage that you and your employer agree upon for your continued service and skills. If the employer does not present terms you find favourable, you can seek employment elsewhere, and they can seek employees elsewhere.

Unless you like the idea of every business in America having the same quality of service, product selection, and prices(and attendant taxes) as Amtrak, the Post Ofiice, or the DMV, not to mention a host of unionized companies, you might want to reconsider your view. If your goal is to make our nation's industries uncompetitive in the world market for the sake of your personal convenience, then please persist in advocating your stance.

I don't mean to be too contrarian or agressive, Mark, but I'd like to hear your views when confronted with an argument like the one I posited above. I usually find that your posts offer a good perspective, so I'd like to hear what you have to say in response to this, if you don't mind.

[NealT]

IMHO, businesses should over vacation and/or sick pay. However, once someone uses it, they should not be advanced it. After all, FMLA provides for unpaid leave, not paid leave...

BTW - this is post 999...

[Task Force]

congrats on your 999th post.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Every employer I have ever had has been fairly accomodating in such circumstances, but employees need to realize that their job is not a right and that there is more going on than just their own lives. In small businesses particularly, the attendance of a single employee can have a major impact on quarterly revenue and the welfare of the company and all their coworkers' livleyhoods. The whole idea of being an employee is that you are paid a wage that you and your employer agree upon for your continued service and skills. If the employer does not present terms you find favourable, you can seek employment elsewhere, and they can seek employees elsewhere.

Unless you like the idea of every business in America having the same quality of service, product selection, and prices(and attendant taxes) as Amtrak, the Post Ofiice, or the DMV, not to mention a host of unionized companies, you might want to reconsider your view. If your goal is to make our nation's industries uncompetitive in the world market for the sake of your personal convenience, then please persist in advocating your stance.

I don't mean to be too contrarian or agressive, Mark, but I'd like to hear your views when confronted with an argument like the one I posited above. I usually find that your posts offer a good perspective, so I'd like to hear what you have to say in response to this, if you don't mind.

Aye aye, sir. Let me sleep on it tonight.

[GoldenRivet]

i think that we should have sick pay.

however i think that it should be tightly controlled sick pay, and the amount of sick pay you have saved up would be the result of your hours worked.

for example. you should gain 1 or 2 hours of sick pay for every 100 hours worked. (or something similar)

also, multiple sick calls should draw scrutiny.

when i worked as a Regional Airline Pilot, we were required to report to the chief pilot prior to being authorized to return to work, part of the brief 2 minute meeting involved us providing a brief explanation of our absence, upon which the chief pilot entered into the computer system an authorization which indicated we were medically fit to fly passengers.

our work record, which was available to us at any time on a computer screen would show any and all absences from work - be they excused or unexcused absences for a legality, a company reason, or sick time, no show, vacation time etc.

if, upon return from sick, you reported to the chief pilot (your most immediate boss) and it became apparent that you have had - say, 3 sick calls in the past 30 days... eyebrows were raised, and you would likley have to explain your sudden rise in health problems to the medical department. (yes, believe it or not we had a medical department complete with a team of RNs and MDs available to us during normal business hours at a very hospital like environment located at HQ)

other eyebrow raisers - if you had vacation for 7 days, and called in sick for the 3 days following vacation - it was glaringly obvious that you wanted your 7 day vacation to be a 10 day vacation.

the typical rule of thumb... keep it under 3 sick calls in a rolling 12 month period. and if you had a bad case of uncontrollable diarrhea following your vacation where you had numerous exotic foods - and you simply couldnt control calling in sick for the 3 days after vacation was over - bring a doctors note - it would help your case if you did.

when i resigned my position with this particular red white and blue striped airline, i had 4 or 5 sick calls in a period of 36 months - something i felt was completely reasonable as it averaged to 1 sick call every 7 months.

if your "sick out" behavior can be closely monitored in such a fashion - it becomes harder to abuse the system.