REPLY IN AGREEMENT TO INFORMATION BELOW USING 2 SOURCES. USE ABSENTEEISM, SICK LEAVE AND MALINGERING TO BASE YOUR POINTS, just a suggestion.
Recently at my place of employment with the fire department we had an issue with absenteeism and our absenteeism policy. We are represented by a union where I work. In our collective bargaining agreement, we have a clause that states if an employee is suspected of taking to much sick leave or malingering that the city may take action against the suspected malingering employee. Any additional sick leave by the employee must be approved by a doctor. If the employee does not provide a doctor’s note, then they may be punished. This clause has been in the contract between the union and the city for decades, but never rarely utilized as it is often difficult to show a pattern of leave as our schedule is a swing schedule.
At the beginning of this year our management chiefs served nearly half of the department a malingering notice. This was not received very well by the rank and file of the union. There was no notice of this and no attempt to educate about the issue before sending out the notices. This would have meant that over half of the department would need a doctors note to take a sick day for any reason for a year’s time or else face punishment. This would mean an incurred cost as the city provided insurance has deductibles and co-pays.
While sick leave and malingering can have a negative effect on the workplace, I would have handled the situation very differently. Employers should investigate the root cause of sick leave usage such as burnout, disengagement, and the care of household members such as children when they are sick (Cushard, nd). I believe that in this situation the management chiefs should have attempted to work with the rank and file to educate them on the issue and why it is important to the city to reduce absenteeism. This education most likely would have been enough to fix the issue if there was one. Instead, the rank and file felt betrayed and felt that the management had an “gotcha” type mentality. This in turn led to a negative working relationship. In the end the notices were rescinded as they realized that the notices were premature and did not have sound standing.