adequate notice for calling in sick..

LegacyUser

at work we have a very small staff and in the last 3 weeks, everyone has called in sick (actually TEXTED in) without a cover and the supervisor keeps having to cancel his plans and cover their shifts plus work his, doing 18 hr day sometimes. usually they text an hour before their shift!

it's a pretty laid back place with no contract or mention of what happens in this instance and we cant find any info on the nera site (anything we find is just about sick leave) so we're wondering

a) can you just ring in sick and refuse to come in
b) can you demand a sick note from an employee
c) if you don't go to work, shouldnt you be responsible for finding your own cover
d) should it be the supervisor's personal responsibility to cover your shift in all cases
e) is it legal to give someone a written warning for termination if we write up rules considering sickness (ie ring in, dont text , find your own cover, bring in a sick note etc) and theyre not followed

thanks

Mrs OBumble

sunnylkr wrote: »

a) can you just ring in sick and refuse to come in

Yes: if an employee is sick, they should not be expected to come in: it's not like you you negotiate away their sickness.

sunnylkr wrote: »

b) can you demand a sick note from an employee

Yes, and employer can. Usually they ask for it after three days, but if there is a policy they can be asked for sooner.

sunnylkr wrote: »

c) if you don't go to work, shouldnt you be responsible for finding your own cover

Absolutely not - you're sick! The only exception would be in you are the supervisor / manager - but even then a well run company should have a contingency plan in place.

sunnylkr wrote: »

d) should it be the supervisor's personal responsibility to cover your shift in all cases

It would generally be the supervisor's personal responsibilty to find cover. It sounds like they need to have some better plans in place - or even better, to address why everyone is suddenly calling in sick.

sunnylkr wrote: »

e) is it legal to give someone a written warning for termination if we write up rules considering sickness (ie ring in, dont text , find your own cover, bring in a sick note etc) and theyre not followed

It's a bit more complex than that and we cannot give legal advice here. Consult your lawyer if you want to go down that route.

LegacyUser

i talked so some friends of mine in the business and they all said that in x amount of time, they never had so many ppl calling in and that their staff know they HAVE to show up to work - and let THEM decide if they're sick

also, my supervisor said that he can get more ppl hired but then everyone else has to go part-time, to make hours for everyone because there just arent enough people to cover shifts when someone gets sick and we're left giving only average customer service cos things are too hectic.

LegacyUser

I know that at the moment a lot of people are sick but it does not solve your problem.
Any place I worked in had a rule that you had to ring in if your were sick by a x time on the day you were sick and text messages were not allowed. Also on the 2nd sick day you need a sick cert from a doctor to cover you until you came back to work.

At this stage you need to look at the sick day record for each member of staff and see if anyone is taking Fri/Mon. I would chat to the staff and tell them that you have notice a rise in the number of sick days taken recently. I would also tell them that they need to ring you when they are sick as early as possible and you will not accept a text message going forward.

I would advise you to get a work contract drawn up for each employee stating the following:
the job they do, how many days holidays they have, the sick day policy, that full time work is dependent on business needs ( if thing get quite you can put staff on a 3 day week), there salary and also that they can be asked to do a different job if the company requires this.
This lets staff know what you expect and also if you need to fire a person due poor work performance you have the legal paperwork to back this up.

tatli_lokma

+1 to the above

lady lady wrote: »

I would advise you to get a work contract drawn up for each employee stating the following:
the job they do, how many days holidays they have, the sick day policy, that full time work is dependent on business needs ( if thing get quite you can put staff on a 3 day week), there salary and also that they can be asked to do a different job if the company requires this.
This lets staff know what you expect and also if you need to fire a person due poor work performance you have the legal paperwork to back this up.

In particular this needs to be addressed ASAP as not providing staff with a written contract is illegal.

Dark Phoenix

I would have thought most companies would have a sick leave policy in place that explains if sick leave is paid for (legally a company does not have to pay sick leave), when a doctors cert is required (after the third consecutive day of sickness in our case which I think is normal enough), how contact with a manager is to be made (in our case texting is not acceptable and disciplinary can be taken if employees don't ring in by a certain time) and what happens if sick leave is excessive (generally more than three times in a year and it would be looked at).

If you dont have any policy in place its easy for your workers to do things like just texting you when they are not coming in.