If you’re so sick that you need to stay home from work, do you automatically go to the doctor?

Would you go to the doctor to get a doctor’s note saying that you’re sick if your manager required it? What if you had to pay out of pocket for that doctor’s visit?

In today’s story, one employee refuses to pay for a doctor’s visit in order to get paid for a sick day, but she knows just what to do to make sure she still gets paid for that sick day!

Let’s read the whole story.

Sick day

My old company manager would always ask for a sick note from your doctor.

It’s about $50 from my GP.

I was at his office when my boss “Mary” called me to make absolutely sure I had a sick note.

I had a two company credit cards one for internal use (tools etc.) and one for external use (billed to clients). Neither would work at my doctors office.

She told Mary about the problem.

I called Mary back:

Me: my company credit cards aren’t working

Mary: use your own and file an expense report

Me: no I’m not here to lend money to a multi million dollar company.

Mary tries to help, but there’s still a problem.

Mary: fine use mine.

Medical secretary: we can’t take credit cards over the phone.

Mary: them you won’t be paid for today.

Me: send that by email right away please.

Mary: sends it.

She knew just how to respond to the email.

Me: replies to email I’ll need a union day to file a grievance as you refusing to pay me is against our collective agreement. There is NOTHING in our collective agreement stating that I need a note for one day, it’s for three consecutive days. I’ll also need a second union rep as I can’t represent myself.

Union days for grievance can’t be refused for any reason unless there’s a catastrophic event.

Mary: (calls me back) fine I’ll pay you.

Too late!

Me: no, the violation has already occurred and the grievance demand filed, we are proceeding with this.

Mary: but

Me: my union rep will be in touch.

For 8 hours pay, and want of a sick note

Me plus other union rep 4 hours to prepare plus 2 hours travel each. 12 hours unpaid. 4 hours each to present the grievance.

Mary’s made up rule really backfired!

Grievance was won at the first stage.

So I got paid my 8 hours, but they company had to pay 20 man hours out of pocket (unbillable to client) because Mary was enforcing her own rules outside the collective agreement, as a “management right”.

I was maliciously complying with our grievance process which I brought up during the presentation.

OP was very knowledgable about the agreement.

Bonus content: Mary stated that what was written in the collective agreement was open to interpretation and she was correct and I was wrong.

I asked her to flip to the last page of the PDF, she did.

Me: who had signed the contract?

Mary: VP of HR, National Union Rep, VP operations, Matthew, and… YOU the VP of your union accreditation

Mary really needs to admit defeat at this point.

Me: so what you’re saying is you, who wasn’t at all present during the negotiations knows more about the contract I’ve negotiated for the last three renewals?

Mary: this meeting is over I’ll have my answer emailed to you within 7 days.

Me: you have 3 business days as per our collective agreement which you know so well, I’d hate to file yet another grievance for non compliance.

That employee really handled that well and put her manager in her place!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person found one part of the story really funny.

Oh, management!

Here’s the perspective of someone who used to work in HR.

This person could tell OP was union.

And the union wins by a landslide!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.