If you are currently on duty and fall ill. Can an employer deny you the right to go home?
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If you are currently on duty and fall ill. Can an employer deny you the right to go home?
At 1130am an employee contacted his supervisor that he had to go home sick due
to not feeling well. At 1213am contacted the supervisor again of feeling faint
and ill. Still did not get relieved of duty. At around 1230pm he activated an
alarm to alert supervisors of not feeling well. They plan on writing him for for
this but he was ill.
Can an employer deny or prolong an ill employee from leaving work sick. We
accrue sick, comp and vacation. We also are under a collective bargaining
agreement and in the state of ohio.
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated
Asked on July 10, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Ohio
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
If you have a collective bargaining agreement, the answer to your question likely depends on what the agreement says about sick leave, leaving work in an emergency (whetherdue to illness or otherwise), etc. If the agreement addresses this issue, then what it says governs the situation. Review the agreement to see what it says about this.
Leaving the agreement aside for a moment, if you have accrued sick leave, unless there is some specific limitation on its use found in, for example, a written employee handbook which had been provided or circulated to you previously, which limitation would prevent you from leaving mid-day for illness, then no, the employer could not deny you the right to go home sick so long as you had and used your earned or accrued sick leave. To not let you leave when sick when you have sick leave is to deny you the right to use your sick leave, which in turn is to deny you some of the compensation you worked for--which is illegal.
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