Human Resource Blog

Sick leave question

A full-time salaried teacher in South Carolina requested a sick day to take her daughter and herself to the doctor on the day following a holiday. The teacher was informed that she could not have that day off because it was the day after a holiday. The daughter’s daycare is closed on that day and she had scheduled the needed appointments to wisely use that time that she had to take off anyway. Now she has been told that she may take that day off but only without pay. I am in HR and I do not believe that this is legal. The employee has more than 6 days remaining of time that she can take off this year. Please help!

This is probably legal and even appropriate, although it sounds as if it was not explained well.

First of all, many employees think of paid sick days as personal days off that can be used for any reason…but they are not. Many, many employers have rules that sick days can only be taken when the employee is sick…not for personal business, or when he or she would like to take the day off.

In this case, the employee was not sick. She wanted to use a sick day for personal business, because she did not have childcare for her daughter.

Second, most employers have rules that an employee must work the day before and after a paid holiday, in order to be paid for it. If the employee calls in sick on the day before or the day after the holiday, she can be paid for the sick day or for the holiday…but not for both. Ths policy is implemented to prevent rampant absenteeism on the days before and after a holiday. Because the salaried employee was entitled to payment for the holiday, she was not entitled to payment for the sick day…even if she had genuinely been sick.

Third, routine doctors appointments can and should be scheduled on Saturdays or days when school is not in session. In most cases, this would be an unexcused absence.

Finally, in virtually every workplace, an absence due to lack of childcare is an unexcused absence. When a parent works, it is the parents job to find childcare for the children. It is also the parents duty to find backup childcare for days when the daycare is closed. It is not reasonable to expect that the employer would give workers paid days off, every time they did not have childcare.

In fact, a working parent who does not have childcare and a backup is a major problem, even if it only occurs occasionally. They are every employers nightmare.

So this employee wanted to use a sick day when a) she was not sick b) the day after a holiday c) for personal business d) for an unexcused absence e) because she did not have childcare. Any one of those factors would probably result in the employee not being paid for the day.

Many teachers are exempt employees. An exempt employee may legitimately have his or her weekly salary reduced, when the employee does no work during the day due to personal business. The employee can also be disciplined or even terminated for such an absence.

If the employer has permitted other parents to use paid sick days on the day after a holiday due to lack of childcare, and is unfairly denying this benefit to the employee due to the employees race, color, sex, national ancestry, religion, pregnancy, disability, age (between 40 and 70) etc. then this may be illegal discrimination. But nothing in your question indicates that is true.