Forced to stay home sick

[dfrconcord]

What is the name of your state? MA

Can a small company, (under 25 people) force an employee to take sick time? My company is small and when one person gets sick, we all get sick. One employee insists on coming in even though she has a serious case of the flu. Can't the owner send her home? We have plenty of paid sick leave so money is not the issue here.

 

[Beth3]

Yes, the owner may send her home if he wants to.

 

[cbg]

But if he doesn't want to, he doesn't have to.

It's entirely up to him.

 

[dfrconcord]

Handbook Policy?

I was going to suggest that we have some type of policy put into the handbook regarding this issue. Is that possible or is it too complicated to attempt to wrap a policy around this problem?

 

[cbg]

It's not necessary to have a policy about it or to have it in the handbook. I'm not sure I'd recommend it. But if you do it, keep it simple; ABC Company reserves the right to send home an employee who comes in while sick.

 

[Beth3]

I agree with cbg. If you want to put something in your policy, keep it very simple. You sure don't want to try and policy-ize what constitutes "too sick to work." I'd probably just state something like "ABC Company reserves the right to send any employee home who management determines is too ill to be at work."

I was going to add something about being contagious but then that could take us down a whole HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis path and you sure don't want to discuss that in your handbook, much less get caught up in writing stating what constitutes a contagious ailment someone can be sent home for and what doesn't.

Even the things that appear to be simple seldom are...

 

[Beth3]

P.S. dfrconcord, you do not have to put any of this in your Handbook. Whether it's in writing or not, management is completely free to send any employee home who they believe is unfit for duty, including too ill (or too contagious) to appropriately be at work.

 

[dfrconcord]

Some valid points have been made here. I can see how difficult this could be to manage or enforce. I guess we will all just have to put our surgical masks on and hope for the best.

Thanks so much.