Demand medical certifcate all leave?

[tubefeed]

We have an emp that takes their full AL, a sick day every month (at least), or takes Carer leave on a regular basis.

While that is fine and good, we are often sceptical that the sick/carer leave is genuine.

This emp has now asked for a detailed breakdown of all leave taken. A task for our admin person for approx 45 mins to type up - they have not indicated why.

I am drafting a letter to this emp to state that all future sick/carers leave requires evidence to support it e.g. medical cert for himself/spouse or child. Am I within my rights to do this? What are the rules around what an employer can reasonably ask? Would this restriction then remain in place forever more???

I am interested to hear what others think. As an employer we provide our emps a lot of benefits (this emp has just been on an expensive training course that results in them being certified and registered in a certain field). We feel frustrated that it all seems to be take take take!

[Cottoneyes]

Most companies I've seen have a policy that you can take 3 or 5 days of the 10 days personal leave a year without a certificate. Any days beyond that and that fall immediately before or after a period of annual leave or public holidays require a medical certificate.
After this policy, it is then a process of getting the managers to get this fairly consistent across the board so there can be no claims of bias against this individual. Keep in mind though that it is fairly easy to get a medical certificate or do a stat declaration which is also allowed, I've even heard of one individual going in on a 'sickie' and walking out with the certificate and a prescription.

Of bigger concern is the 45 minutes taken to produce a simple leave taken report. I'd be looking at the system you use or whether the team needs more training in report running. I've used around 5 different systems in my career and have never taken longer than 5 minutes to either print this sort of report or download it into excel.

[tubefeed]

Yes I agree the 45 mins is of concern! We are about to embark on a new systems implementation which will do away with several manually maintained spreadsheets - can't wait!

[Chipmunk]

Hi Tubefeed,

Section 107 of the Fir Work Act 2009 sets out the evidence requirements in relation to Personal leave/Carers leave and unpaid carers leave, and 107 (4) specifies compliance with that section for an employee as follows:

107 Notice and evidence requirements
Notice
(1) An employee must give his or her employer notice of the taking of leave under this Division by the employee.
(2) The notice:
(a) must be given to the employer as soon as practicable (which may be a time after the leave has started); and
(b) must advise the employer of the period, or expected period, of the leave
.
Evidence
(3) An employee who has given his or her employer notice of the taking of leave under this Division must, if required by the employer, give the employer evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that:
(a) if it is paid personal/carer’s leave—the leave is taken for a reason specified in section 97; or
(b) if it is unpaid carer’s leave—the leave is taken for a permissible occasion in circumstances specified in subsection 103(1); or
(c) if it is compassionate leave—the leave is taken for a permissible occasion in circumstances specified in subsection 105(1)

Compliance
(4) An employee is not entitled to take leave under this Division unless the employee complies with this section. Modern awards and enterprise agreements may include evidence requirements
(5) A modern award or enterprise agreement may include terms relating to the kind of evidence that an employee must provide in order to be entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave, unpaid carer’s leave or compassionate leave.

The current debate lies around notice requirement’s being reasonable, and if it is indeed reasonable to ask for a certificate for each and every absence from work. I would suggest getting some legal advice as each situation is different for each employee. I hope that this information helps.

[FWI]

Further, section 107 requires that 'if required by the employer' so there must be a request for the evidence at the time the 'taking the leave', and secondly, the requirement to only provide 'evidence' that would 'satisfy a 'reasonable person' does not mean only a medical certificate.

As per the Workplace Relations Act, a statutory declaration was acceptable for notice, the same could apply here in that only 'evidence' as acceptable in a court of law could include affidavits, stat. decs, newspaper clippings so basically anything that could satisfy in a reasonable instance.

Take it you employee had a tummy bug, i don’t know about you but, it usually takes more than a day to get into my local GP, so by the end of the day, you feel ok. A doctor wont in some instances back date medical certificates, so how is this situation covered for?

Hence if needed, a stat. dec. would suffice if the employer deemed every instance a medical one.

Difficult I know, but every full time employee is 'entitled' to 10 day personal leave per year and if its used to its fullest, that's a legal entitlement to access.