Absence with Pay (Part 21)

Section 21.3 - Sick Leave - (Part 2 of 2, C-10 through C-19)

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C-10 Written Requests for Leave

Negotiating Unit:

• Institutional Services Unit Article 10.12

Effect:

An employee in the Institutional Services Unit must be given a written response, within six workdays, if the employee submits a written request to use sick leave credits. If the request is denied, the written response must include a statement of the reasons for the denial.

In addition, an employee who has not received a response at the end of four days after making the request to use sick leave credits has the right to appeal to a designated management representative who then is responsible for ensuring that the employee receives a response within two days of the appeal. See p. C-11, Section 21.2, Vacation, for a further discussion of this contract provision which applies to the use of all leave credits for this Unit.

TM-6 - No Substantative Changes - January 1991

C-11 Use of Other Leave Credits

Negotiating Unit:

• Institutional Services Unit Article 10.20

Effect:

This provision confirms the Attendance Rules provision that an employee who has exhausted sick leave accruals must be permitted to charge absence due to illness to other leave credits if the absence would have been approved as a charge to sick leave credits were such credits available.

The subject contract article also provides that employee requests to charge absences due to illness to other credits following exhaustion of sick leave credits shall not be routinely or arbitrarily denied. However, such requests may be denied in cases where employees have been given prior notice that they have attendance problems.

When applying this contract article, appointing authorities should be judicious in determining both the type of absence for which use of other leave credits will be denied and the period of time that denial will be effective. For example, it would be appropriate to include unscheduled, undocumented single day absences for personal illness but not include documented absence for death in the family. Also, in the case of long-term personal illness or disability, it is not the intent of this article to deny an employee his/her entitlement to sick leave at half-pay by denying the use of leave credits (thus making the employee ineligible for sick leave at half-pay). Appointing authorities should state in the notice to the employee the specific time period he/she will be denied use of other credits as sick leave and at the end of the period, should review the individual's record before extending or discontinuing the denial.

TM-6 - No Substantative Changes - January 1991

C-12 Medical Certificates

Negotiating Units:

• Administrative Services Unit Article 10.16
• Institutional Services Unit Article 10.9
• Operational Services Unit Article 10.12
• Professional, Scientific & Technical Services Unit Article 30
• Rent Regulation Services Unit Article 14

Effect:

These contract articles provide for confidentiality of medical certificates and notice of written documentation requirements.

Confidentiality of Medical Certificates

Whatever local arrangements are made for the filing of confidential medical certificates with designated persons, it is not intended that such designees shall be required to withhold information reasonably required by immediate supervisors or other appropriate agency staff to exercise their normal and regular responsibilities. However, in all cases, great care should be exercised to protect employees against the indiscriminate dissemination or use of medical information provided confidentially.

Many certificates will not require the special treatment contemplated by the subject items. Employees will continue to submit medical certificates for colds or the flu or dental problems without requesting use of special procedures for confidentiality. Every supervisor who receives medical certificates from employees is expected to handle all of them in such a way as to prevent their perusal by co-workers or other unauthorized personnel.

With respect to requirements for confidential treatment of medical certificates:

1. Employees in the Administrative Services Unit who submit medical certificates which they wish to be treated as confidential shall be allowed, in accordance with procedures developed in a labor/management forum, to file such certificates with one person designated to receive such certifications and to transmit the authorization for the use of sick leave credits back to the employee's supervisor.

TM-6 - New or Revised Material - January 1991

C-13

2. Employees in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and the Rent Regulation Services Units may be allowed the same option as is available to ASU employees in accordance with local labor/management arrangements which may be developed for that purpose.
3. The Institutional Services Unit agreement provides that an employee, upon notice to his/her supervisor, may submit medical certificates on a confidential basis directly to the agency or facility personnel office. The employee is expected to advise the supervisor of his/her intent to do this prior to return to work. The personnel office is responsible for ensuring that the supervisor has sufficient information to decide the appropriateness of a charge to sick leave.
4. For employees in the Operational Services Unit, an alternate method for handling medical certificates has been provided in cases where employees, because of extreme confidentiality concerns, prefer to deliver their medical certificates to someone other than the immediate supervisor who normally receives such certificates for employees in this unit. According to this procedure, the State shall designate one person in a particular department, agency or facility to receive the medical certificate and to transmit authorization for the use of sick leave credits and/or anticipated date of return to duty back to the employee's immediate supervisor. For employees in this unit, this procedure is restricted to cases where extreme confidentiality concerns exist. This privilege may be discontinued for an individual employee if the agency/facility head determines that the employee is abusing this privilege.

Medical Diagnosis

Employees should not be required to provide medical certificates which contain more than a brief statement of the employee's medical condition when such brief statement is sufficient to serve as proof of an employee's inability to perform the duties of the position. While an explicit diagnosis will be unnecessary in many cases, employing agencies are not prohibited from requiring medical certificates which are sufficiently informative to allow them to make a determination concerning the employee's entitlement to leave or to evaluate the assignment and availability of the individual. Generally, satisfactory medical documentation will include, in addition to a brief statement of the nature of the illness, a statement confirming that the employee is unable to perform the duties of the position due to this illness, the dates of the disability and the prognosis, including anticipated date of return to work.

TM-6 - New or Revised Material - January 1991

C-14

The contract articles for the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and the Rent Regulation Services Units specifically provide that employees may not be required to submit medical certificates which provide a medical diagnosis in greater detail than is necessary.

Notice of Medical Certificate Requirement

Many State agencies have adopted policies which provide that medical documentation of personal illness shall not normally be required of employees for sick leave absences of four or five days or less. In part, such policies recognize that most employees who are ill for a day or two because of a bad cold, upset stomach, migraine headache, etc., will not require medical treatment and need not incur the expense of such treatment. The three CSEA Unit Agreements serve to establish such a policy for all employees in these Units and prohibit agencies from imposing unreasonable requirements for the filing of certificates.

Neither the aforementioned agency policies nor the CSEA Unit agreements preclude any agency from requiring medical certificates of employees who are absent for four days or less whenever such requirement is reasonable under the circumstances; e.g., when there is reason to believe the employee is not incapacitated from the performance of the duties of the position, when the employee has consistently abused leave privileges or when the employee fails or refuses to explain the absence in question. There is no requirement that such agency requests be made in writing to the employee. So long as medical certificates are not required for every sick leave absence of four days or less for every employee in an agency as a matter of "routine," the employing agency is not otherwise restricted in its right to require evidence of medical disability.

With respect to requirements for notice:

1. Employees in any one of the three CSEA Units may not be required routinely to submit medical certificates for sick leave absences of four days or less. For employees in the Institutional Services Unit specific clarification has been added that the four-day requirement is four consecutive workdays. This clarification does not provide a benefit different than that in the other CSEA Units.

TM-13 - New or Revised Material - 5/94

C-15

For example, an employee who has Saturday/Sunday pass days who was absent on a Thursday and Friday would also need to be absent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before management could request a medical note on a routine basis. These provisions do not limit the appointing authority's right to require medical documentation to substantiate past absences in specific cases and when unrelated to an overall attendance record review.

2. For employees in the Operational Services Unit and Administrative Services Unit, in cases where an agency determines solely on the basis of review of the employee's attendance record that an employee shall be required to provide medical documentation, the requirement must follow counseling and must be in writing with an effective date subsequent to such notice. The requirement to provide medical documentation must be of a reasonable duration and that duration must be specified in the written notice to the employee.
3. When an appointing authority requires medical documentation from an employee in the Institutional Services Unit, the employee must be notified of this requirement in writing. When an appointing authority requires an individual to submit doctors' certificates to substantiate absences charged to sick leave based solely on a review of the employee's past attendance record, such requirement may be imposed only for absences occurring after the employee has been given written notice. This does not limit the appointing authority's right to require medical documentation to substantiate past absences in specific cases and when unrelated to an overall attendance record review.

TM-13 - New or Revised - 5/94

C-16 Medical Examination Before Return to Duty

Negotiating Units:

• Administrative Services Unit Article 10.17
• Institutional Services Unit Article 10.19
• Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Unit Article 30
• Rent Regulation Services Unit Article 14

Effect:

These items refer to medical examinations required of employees in accordance with Subdivision (e), Section 21.3 of the Attendance Rules for State employees. (These provisions do not apply to workers' compensation injuries). This Section confirms the appointing authority's right to require an employee who has been absent due to personal illness, as a condition of returning to work, to undergo a medical examination at the appointing authority's expense by a physician selected by the appointing authority. In general, reasonable effort should be extended to schedule medical examinations in such a way as to avoid unnecessary delay in the employee's return to duty beyond the date the employee requests to return.

Rent Regulation Services Unit

For employees in the Rent Regulation Unit, the appointing authority is expected to make a reasonable effort to schedule a medical examination within five working days of the date of receipt of notice from the employee that such employee has his/her physician's approval to return to work. This limitation is intended to prevent the employing agency from unduly delaying the employee's return to duty beyond the date requested for return by not acting promptly to initiate the scheduling of medical examinations.

Administrative, Institutional and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Units

The agreements for these three Units are designed to provide more specific protection from loss of income when employees are denied return to duty because of employer-caused delays in the scheduling of medical examinations as a condition of return to work.

When an employee in one of these Units has been absent because of illness or injury, he/she may be required to provide medical documentation confirming his/her fitness for duty and to submit to a medical examination by a physician selected by the appointing authority as a condition of return. If an employee is required to submit to such a medical examination, the 20 workdays within which the appointing authority is expected to complete the exam should be calculated as follows:

TM-6 - No Substantative Changes - January 1991

C-17

1. If an employee submits medical documentation stating fitness for duty and giving a return to work date which is ten workdays or fewer from the date the documentation is submitted, the appointing authority has a total of 20 workdays from receipt of the notice to complete the medical examination. This includes the ten workdays or fewer of advance notice and a sufficient number of workdays beyond the proposed return to work date to total 20 workdays. In other words, if the employee gives less than ten days' notice the appointing authority has 20 days from the date of notice to complete the exam or the employee is put in pay status on the 21st day.
2. If an employee submits medical documentation stating fitness for duty and giving a return to work date which is more than ten workdays from the date the documentation is submitted, the appointing authority has from receipt of the notice to a maximum of ten workdays beyond the expected date of return to complete the examination. In other words, if the employee gives more than ten days' notice, the appointing authority has ten days beyond the specified return date to complete the exam or the employee is put in pay status on the 11th day following the return date.

Some examples follow:

1. Employee A notifies her agency on September 11, 1985, with appropriate medical documentation, that she can return to work on September 19, 1985. (She has a Monday through Friday schedule.) This employee would be entitled to be put in pay status on October 10, 1985 if the agency has not completed the medical examination process and notified the employee of the results prior to that date. (The employee provided fewer than ten workdays' advance notice so the agency has a total of 20 workdays to complete the process.)
2. Employee B notifies his agency on September 26, 1985, with appropriate medical documentation, that he can return to work on October 16, 1985. (He has a Monday through Friday schedule.) This employee would be entitled to be put in pay status on October 31, 1985 if the agency has not completed the medical examination process and notified the employee of the results by that date. (The employee provided more than ten workdays' advance notice so the agency has ten workdays beyond the proposed return to work date to complete the process.)

TM-6 - No Substantative Changes - January 1991

C-18

If no decision is reached concerning the employee's request to return to duty within the time limits, the employee may be placed on leave with pay without charge to credits and not allowed to return to duty. However, leave with pay is not granted where the delay in determining the employee's fitness is caused by the employee's failure to appear for the medical examination or otherwise to cooperate in its scheduling and holding.

If the physician selected by the appointing authority finds that the employee is not fit for return to duty, the employee is placed on appropriate leave charged to credits or, if necessary, on leave without pay as of the date of receipt of the physician's report. Reexaminations by the appointing authority's physician (where the employee is found unfit for duty) are not required more often than once a month and if the physician has set a date for reexamination or return to duty, not before such specified date.

The provisions of these contract articles shall not be construed to require the extension of any employment beyond the time it would otherwise terminate or would be terminated; e.g., under Section 73 of the Civil Service Law.

Employees required to submit to a medical examination conducted by a physician selected by the appointing authority are entitled to be reimbursed for actual and necessary travel, meal and lodging costs incurred as a result of travel in connection with such examination. Such reimbursement is to be made in accordance with the Comptroller's Rules and Regulations.

To this point, the provisions of ASU Article 10.17, ISU Article 10.19, and PS&T Article 30 are the same and should be administered in the same manner.

The PS&T article differs from the two CSEA unit contracts in Section 30.1(f) which states that employees shall be considered to be in pay status during the time of the medical examination and necessary travel time to and from its site. In application, this means that a PS&T employee shall be placed on leave with pay without charge to credits for actual time spent at the medical examination and reasonable and necessary travel time to and from the examination. Employees absent on leave accruals shall not have accruals charged during this period. Employees absent on half-pay or leave without pay shall be entitled to be put in full pay status during this period. This full pay for the medical examination does not restore the employee to duty status and does not impact on the time limits on leave for disability in Section 73 of the Civil Service Law. (Note: Employees in ASU and ISU remain in the same payroll status to which they are otherwise entitled at the time of the examination; i.e., in duty status,...

TM-6 - No Substantative Changes - January 1991

C-19

...charging leave accruals, on sick leave at half-pay, or on leave without pay.

Salary adjustments for PS&T employees for the number of hours of the examination and reasonable and necessary travel time to and from the examination site should be processed as quickly as possible.

TM-6 - New or Revised Material - January 1991

Revision History	TM-6 - January 1991
C-1 thru 11, 16 thru 18	No Substantive Changes
C-12 thru 15, 19	New or Revised Material

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