Why Are Employees Suddenly Taking So Many Sick Leaves Despite Salary Deductions?

Understanding the Sudden Increase in Sick Leaves

I have recently joined this organization, which didn't have any leave policy. I implemented one in accordance with the Mum Shops Establishment Act. Now, there is a trend of employees going on sick leave every week. Every other day, I am receiving sick leave requests. We are allowing a total of 8 Casual Leave/Sick Leave (CL/SL) days every year; the rest is unpaid. However, the employees just don't seem to care that their salary will be deducted, while the management is getting upset. What could be the reason for this sudden wave of sick leaves? Kindly assist.

Regards.

Dear Jyoti,

Please find the attached file which will help you solve your problem.

Hello Jyoti,

It would help if, firstly, you have a system where producing a medical certificate is mandatory. The doctor must mention that the employee was sick. Also, you must have a performance management system in place, and during the performance appraisal, be able to discuss any issues you have with reference to the leaves availed. Additionally, it is imperative to ensure that your leave policy is balanced. Study the trends of why, when, and how many leaves your employees avail. Then revisit your leave policy to make appropriate revisions that would take care of the employees' requirements, the employers' interests, as well as being legally sound.

Best Regards

Dear Jyoti, it is very clear that workers are looking for every other opportunity to get lost. This is an indication of precarious work conditions. You may conduct a small survey to understand the reasons. Consider outsourcing the work to an external agency, perhaps some students, and you will gain valuable insights.

Regards,
Jagdish Patel
Peoples Training & Research Centre

May be you should organize a workshop or some activity-based trip in which they should be motivated and encouraged to work and make them realize that the deduction of their salary will harm their life only.

Deepika Manchanda
Growth Orbit

Hey Jyoti,

Here are a few things you must do:

1. Call an all-hands meeting to be presided over by a senior manager. Help the senior manager with data to explain to the employees the impact of this behavior.

2. When employees are sick, do not treat them with suspicion, or else you could have a "cry wolf" situation, which can spiral out of control very quickly.

3. Sudden unexplained sickness absenteeism is a clear sign of dissatisfaction with whatever is going on in the office. It is rather difficult to speculate.

4. If things are not moving forward, get an outside agency to help assess and improve employee engagement. I know one company, Acengage (don't know their details), that works on employee engagement issues, but you can try any other you know.

Hope this helps...all the best

Hi Jyothi, I have a few suggestions. You can implement one or more of them depending on the suitability to your organization.

1. You need to first find out the actual reason for employees taking sick leave so often and try to tackle that. For example, if the reason is that people are getting stressed out due to management overloading them with work, then you may need to have more staff.

2. If the reason for sick leave is genuine, try to find out if there is a pattern or common reason for sickness. For example, if flu is a common cause, then you need to educate your employees or bring about more awareness as to how flu can be avoided by following hygienic practices, etc. If the reason is neck pain/back pain, you need to train them on sitting postures, desk exercises, etc.

3. Announce a reward for those who give 100% or best attendance, i.e., for those who don't take any sick leave.

4. Announce encashment of unused sick leave if feasible.

5. Formulate a strict sick leave policy wherein you can question the capability of an employee who takes sick leave quite often, which in extreme cases can result in termination of employment. This should stop people from misusing sick leave.

6. Consider attendance for performance appraisals (should not include earned leave), which should ultimately affect increments, bonuses, etc., and let the employees be aware of this well in advance.

7. Put up a list of sick leave taken with employee names and the number of days of sick leave in the order of maximum leave taken to least leave taken on a monthly basis on your notice board. This will work wonders sometimes as people don't like their names to appear on the top of the list.

Hope this helps. Do let me know your thoughts.

Regards, Padma

Hi Jyoti,

Not clear - after implementing the leave policy, did you notice a trend? Does this mean that the sick leave was not properly monitored earlier, or did you implement a very flexible policy? Please review the policy again before making any further analysis or taking actions.

Regards,
Majeed

Addressing Leave Policy Challenges

It appears that prior to your joining, the leave policy was not adhered to, even as per existing laws governed by the Mum Shops Act. Employees were used to taking leave at will. But after you joined, you started regulating as per the law. People normally do not like to be regulated, especially after being accustomed to a certain way of life.

It further appears that they must have felt you were obstructing their freedom, hence they are trying to frustrate your regulations. Normally, you should have taken them into confidence before implementing and provided prior intimation through their superiors for a smooth transition from anarchy to orderliness.

Steps to Address Current Situation

What can you do now? As an employer, you have every right to reject unpaid leave (any leave for that matter, except genuine emergencies) due to work urgency. You may request a medical certificate from a government doctor or your company-approved doctor for their utilization of entitled sick leave or unpaid leave.

Advise them that frequent absenteeism due to illness may require them to testify before a medical board (to be constituted by the management) and could render them medically unfit to continue their job. Ensure you have the support of the management before proceeding further.

Good luck!

Regards,
HC. Subbaramu
HR & Labour Law Consultant
Bengaluru

Dear Jyoti,

Padma has given you a complete solution. Follow her suggestions, and you will have the answer to your problem.

Best Wishes,
Vasant Nair

Hi Jyoti, I am also in HR and have faced the same problem. I have implemented the following solutions:

Solutions to Prevent Sick Leave Abuse

To avoid abuse of sick leave privileges, a statement from a medical doctor or other acceptable proof may be required. Evidence to support leave for adoption-related purposes may also be necessary. You can also cross-check with doctors, medical bills, and medication prescriptions.

On the other hand, you can consider discontinuing the sick leave policy in the company so that your management won't get upset with you.

Feel free to ask me if you need any help.

Regards,

Dear Jyothi, in one of my management books I read recently, the author, who is a renowned psychologist, goes on to say that if an incentive is given to people, by way of our human nature, people will indulge in it. Now, if you implemented a sick leave program, then expect people to take sick leave. You have offered an incentive to get sick. It's as simple as that.

However, with that said, I have to agree with some of the other discussers on this forum that the trends and patterns associated with these leave types will vary. Kancheri said that perhaps the leave was not monitored previously; hence, only now you are noticing a trend could be very pertinent here. I suggest you follow a lot of the advice here so that you can have a good arsenal so that if a case has to be referred to arbitration, grievance, or even dismissal, you have all the facts in front of you.

Here in South Africa, our labor laws are quite different, and in most cases, the employees come out on top, as is the case that a lot of the HR personnel are not equipped with the right tools; if not, they just don't know the HR labor law sufficiently.

M. R. S. Sastry gives you various comments on why people will take this sick leave. Well, I think Sastry is absolutely correct; it is a dialogue. You can very well draw up a graphical representation of an employee when you start to bring into account all the reasons why a person is taking so much sick leave.

Simply put, if a person is disgruntled or just hates what he or she is doing, then expect sick leave. Sorry, but it is very difficult to control, and it is as blatant as that.

Regards, Ravi Naidoo

Dear All,

Thanks for your response, but the facts are as below:

1. The employee took a lot of leave previously also, but not to this extent, of course.
2. Previously, since the employees didn't need to take approval for leave, the management didn't know about the employee going on leave. But now, since the requests go to them on a regular basis, they feel it has started with the implementation of the leave policy.
3. The employee feels that since CL/SL are not encashed, it's better if they exhaust them all.
4. The leave policy was implemented by me after consulting with the employee only as to what was more convenient for them.
5. Employees are smart enough to take one sick leave every now and then to avoid giving a medical certificate since it can be asked for only if they take 3 SL in a row.

How to deal with that...???

I find the discussion and opinions on this query both interesting and funny.

Leave Policies and Employee Rights

- Good that Ms. Jyoti has offered leaves to employees, which is anyway their legal right and nobody can deny it.
- There have to be some checks and balances to ensure that sick leaves are used as sick leaves only. Hence, there need to be conditions like the employee will have to submit a doctor's certificate if the leave is for, say, two or more days, etc.
- Eight days of paid sick leave in a year is, I would say, reasonably low, and no one should have a complaint about it if, in case, eight paid sick leaves are availed in a year.

Roles and Responsibilities of HR and Management

- The HR department's responsibility is to design policies, rules, processes, and implement them.
- Sanctioning of leaves is the responsibility of the concerned immediate boss or head of the department, and it is not the responsibility of the HR department. The HR department will only maintain the account of leaves.
- A person sanctioning the leaves should always follow the set rules and processes and should use their discretion to sanction or deny any leave.

Handling Leave Requests and Absences

- If somebody is really sick and is not in a position to attend duty, no matter if they do not have leave balance to their credit, they will not come for duty anyway.
- In case the leave sanctioning person is not satisfied with the reason given for leave, they can, using their discretion, deny the leave. If the employee enjoys leave despite denial, then the employee should be marked as absent. As all are aware, frequent absence from duty can attract disciplinary action.
- In this case, employees are taking a lot of 'Leaves Without Pay'. Please try and differentiate between leave without pay and absence. 'Leave Without Pay' is a leave approved by the superior for a genuine purpose. It is without pay either because of non-availability of leave balance or because of discretion used by the superior to approve the leave as without pay despite having leave balance. The point is the sanctioning authority must be made to use their authority and discretion judiciously. If they are not satisfied with the reason for leave, they should be bold enough to deny the leave. Such a culture will resist employees from taking leaves without proper reasons.
- In case an employee remains absent despite the denial of leave, it will amount to 'Unauthorized Absence' and the same can attract suitable disciplinary action.
- A very important point here is that sanctioning authorities cannot go on sanctioning leaves left-right-centre and then complain that employees are taking a lot of leaves. They have the authority to deny leaves.
- Any unauthorized absence needs to be dealt with strictly by the HR department.
- Attendance bonuses and attendance incentives can encourage employees to avoid unnecessary leaves and absence.

Thanks & Regards

Strategies for Addressing Leave Policy Challenges

Please go through my earlier post carefully.

- You will have to prove to the management the real difference brought by the introduction of the Leave Policy. Check the Attendance and Leave Data of employees. Compare the Post Policy and Pre Policy Data and present it to Management.
- Tell Management that employees were remaining absent before, and now the only difference is that because of Leave Applications, it is coming to your notice.
- Eight Leaves in a year is not much and should not worry you and your management.
- Educate your Management and all those sanctioning leaves to use their discretion and authority. Tell them to learn how to say 'NO'. Be assertive. If management wants employees to take fewer leaves, then sanctioning authorities should curb the leaves.
- Be strict and particular about those remaining absent. Take timely disciplinary actions against them to cultivate a culture of discipline and order.
- Incentives and bonuses will also encourage and reward those who are disciplined.

Thanks & Regards

In addition to what she says, you can also add to your leave policy that the leaves taken, which are accessible to the employees, will affect their appraisal. Remember one thing: new policies take some time to be implemented properly, and it also takes time for employees to adjust to them. So be precise and patient. Things will align with the norms after a specific duration.

Hello Jyoti, it would help if, firstly, you have a system where producing a medical certificate is mandatory. The doctor must mention that the employee was sick. Also, you must have a performance management system in place, and during the performance appraisal, you should be able to discuss any issues you have with reference to the leaves taken. It is also imperative to ensure that your leave policy is balanced. Study the trends of why, when, and how many leaves your employees take. Then revisit your leave policy to make appropriate revisions that would cater to the employees' requirements, the employer's interests, and be legally sound.

Best Regards