Change sought to administration of medical leave

Letters have been sent to the heads of HRSDC, CIC and the IRB concerning the online administration of medical leave.

The following letter was sent by National President Jeannette Meunier-McKay to the heads of the three departments employing CEIU members.

As you are aware, the Treasury Board has changed the policy on leave with pay for medical appointments, removing appointments for particular complaints from amongst the appointments for which leave will be granted.  Employees are now required to use their sick leave for such appointments.

However, this has created a problem for our members who wish to access leave for such purposes.  The paperless office requires, in order to access sick leave, the employee to sign a declaration that he or she is unable to perform their duties because of illness or injury.  Our members are concerned that signing such a declaration when such is not the case (although there is reason to go to a medical appointment) may well constitute fraud (knowingly signing and benefiting from a false statement).

An example may help to clarify this.  If an employee goes to a periodic checkup at the dentist and has to return to have some cavities filled, then they are required by the policy to use their sick leave for such appointments.   But it is not the case that the employee is unable to work due to illness or injury and declaring that such is the case is simply not true.

In order to reassure your employees, we suggest that a different way of accessing sick leave be introduced into Peoplesoft which would allow employees to access that leave by stating that it is for a medical appointment.  The only alternative available to individuals concerned about this would be to file a paper form giving the reason for the sick leave.

With this rather simple amendment, we believe the employer can reassure employees that they continue to wish employees to provide accurate information on request for leave.

Sincerely,

Jeannette Meunier-McKay
National President

c.c.    CEIU National Vice-Presidents
         CEIU Local Presidents
         CEIU Regional Union Offices