Bosses shouldn’t ask sick workers for doctor’s notes: OMA

Toronto Star
January 8, 2014
By Alex Ballingall

Sick workers of the world, stay home. And don’t worry about getting a doctor’s note.

That’s the proclamation of Ontario Medical Association (OMA) president Scott Wooder, who is calling on employers in the province to drop the requirement of a doctor’s note when workers call in sick. They should just stay home instead, especially during flu season, Wooder argues.

“First of all, you don’t want to encourage people who have infectious diseases to go to their doctor’s office when it’s not necessary,” said Wooder, himself a family physician who has worked in Stoney Creek, near Hamilton, for 28 years.

“They’re in a waiting room with other people, (and) some of them have very serious illnesses like cancer. There are pregnant mothers and children. They’re putting those people at risk.”

Wooder gets about two requests a day for doctor’s notes from patients seeking to justify sick days to an employer. Extrapolating that experience province-wide, Wooder estimates there could be “tens of thousands” of doctor’s visits for sick notes every day at drop-in clinics, emergency rooms and family practices.

“(These visits) are expensive, they’re unnecessary and they put other people at risk,” said Wooder.

“We don’t have resources in the health care system to police absenteeism for employers.”

John Kiru, executive director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, said he respects an individual’s right to stay home to get healthy, but if someone is away for several days it’s entirely reasonable to demand a doctor’s note.

“You’re running a business. You’ve got some expectations for people to show up, and rightly so,” he said.

“After a certain point, I think the expectation should continue to be: a sick note, a note indicating that the individual was truly ill rather than somebody that wanted to take three days off.”

When is it reasonable to ask sick workers for doctor's notes? The practice of requiring sick notes varies among workplaces in the GTA.

At IBM Canada, for example, employees can choose to work from home if they’re feeling under the weather, and the company doesn’t ask for sick notes unless an absence lasts more than 10 days, said spokeswoman Carrie Bendzsa.

“We would agree that employees should stay home if possible when they are not well — to ensure a healthy and speedy recovery as well as to avoid infecting others,” she said.

The City of Toronto, which employs around 33,000 people, asks for doctor’s notes from non-union, union and management employees who take more than three consecutive sick days, said spokesperson Jackie DeSouza.

While acknowledging he’s not well-versed in the realm of human resources, Wooder argued employers should be more trusting of workers who call in sick. He added that requests for sick notes go up during busy times such as flu season (now in full swing), which is all the more reason for sick people to stay home unless they actually need a doctor’s treatment.

“I’m not an expert in workplace absenteeism, but I am an expert in health care,” he said. “I think employers are going to have to adopt other policies.”

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, influenza activity has “sharply” increased this week across the country, with a greater portion of those affected being between 20 and 64 years old than last flu season.