must use vacation for sick days

[CBHugs]

What is the name of your state? PA
Family owned company has 14 employees. This year, for the first time in
20+ years, paid vacation days increased from 5 per year to 10 per year and paid holidays went from 2 to 6. There are and never were any paid personal or sick days. Now the President (this is an incorporated business) has said that if anyone calls in sick, they will have to use their paid vacation days as sick days. He will pay the vacation day pay, but they MUST use the V day for the Sick day. They are also required to bring in a Doctor's excuse. This all started when an employee who hasn't been out sick in 10 years called in sick 2 days in a row.
I have been told that I (an hourly employee who is an administrative assistant) am to "handle" the disciplining. I refused and then I was in trouble
as well.
So I complied. I called the (PA) State Human Resources 4 times and got different answers. 1 person said that a Doctor's excuse cannot be required if there are no paid sick days and there is no apparent abuse of the working hours (I.E. excessive days out as being "sick." )
Under what circumstrances is a Dr's excuse required when there are no paid sick days? Is it legal to force employees to use paid Vacation days as sick days? Thank you for your response.

 

[Beth3]

Under what circumstrances is a Dr's excuse required when there are no paid sick days? Anytime the employer requests one. Insisting on doctor's notes for short-term absences due to routine illnesses (colds, the flu, etc.) is dumb in my opinion, but it's legal.

Is it legal to force employees to use paid Vacation days as sick days? Yes.

I also think it's a very bad idea to have anyone other than a member of management handle any disciplinary matters but again, it's legal.

 

[pattytx]

If there are sick days left, it makes no sense to use vacation days. However, if sick leave has been exhausted, it is perfectly fine for the employer to require the employee use vacation in order to get paid.

If the employee is exempt and misses the whole day as sick, he is not legally required to be paid at all, so using vacation at least allows him to receive pay for the day, whereas if an exempt employee misses a partial day as sick, he must, generally speaking, be paid for the entire day and, if the employer wants to, they can charge him vacation to make up the difference.
Nonexempt employees do not have such restrictions in pay by law.

And the HR person you talked to at the state is wrong. There is no federal nor state law which prohibits the employer from requiring a doctor's note to excuse an absence, even for one day.

 

[cbg]

Your employer is not obligated to provide you with either paid sick days or vacation time at all; they are at liberty to make the rules as to how they can be used. While I agree with the others that there is little point to requiring vacation time to be used when there is sick time available, there is nothing illegal about it.

The person you talked to at the DOL who said you cannot require a doctor's note is definitely wrong. Barring FMLA and ADA situations (which would not apply in your case since you do not have enough employees) the law does not address doctor's notes. With those exceptions, the law neither prohibits nor requires an employee to obtain an doctor's note under any circumstances; it is entirely up to the employer when to ask for them and how much weight to give them.

BTW, in the same manner a doctor's note has no force in law. An employer is not required to excuse an absence when a doctor's note is provided or to automatically follow the instructions a doctor provides. For some reason a great many people believe that an employer is legally bound to do exactly what the doctor says in all situations; that is not the case.

 

[CBHugs]

thank you -just a reminder that we have NO sick days

Thank you for your responses. They have helped me a lot.
The one thing that was missed in some of the replies was the
fact that we have NO paid sick or personal days. The 2 other things
that I didn't mention originally were that
1. there are no salaried or exempt /non-exempt (even though I and 1 other are told that we are adm assist)
and 2. there are 2 employees that constantly don't show up or
call in ( yes, I was instructed to document all of this and give out
written warnings; 1 had 14 such absences in 4 months)
so it seems unfair for management to demand some things of
certain employees and not of others.
yes, I am looking for another job....

 

[cbg]

The fact that you do not have paid sick days does not change the answer.