Reply to New Employer Requiring Me To Disclose Nature of My DD's Dr. Visit.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please clarify: The OP wants to use his sick time for his child's doctor's appointment? Wouldn't vacation/personal time be more appropriate?[/quote]

No, legally you are able to use your sick time for immediate family members.[/quote]

Legally? Is the OP in the public sector or work for the federal government?[/quote]

Ahhh, doesnt matter . FMLA covers it.[/quote]

OP's in a new job.  No FMLA.  Also, FMLA wouldn't apply to a single doctor's appointment.

As to whether an employer can require this, the answer is yes.  There may be a limit as to how specific the medical information would need to be - you'd have to check your state law for details.  But, if you're missing work and if you're planning to take sick leave documentation can be required.  Often sick leave has specific criteria that must be met in order to use it and your employer can require to you document that your leave qualifies.

Also, for those who are saying that an employer has to allow an employee to use sick leave for their kids' medical appointments, that's not necessarily true.  If you have a contract, like a collective bargaining agreement, that requires the employer to allow you to use sick leave for this purpose, then yes they are required.  But this is not universal by any means.

If you're not used to this, it can feel odd.  But it's very typical in certain industries.  Many/most doctors actually have a bad of excuses that they just have to check off.  Now, it's also common to have electronic excuses.  This is especially true of pediatricians who need to provide kids with a note so that kids can return to school and not get an unexcused absence.  
[/quote]

Wow this response is full of wrong or incomplete information. FMLA covers unpaid leave. If OP has sick leave as part of his employment benefits that kicks in as soon as he starts work, then he is entitled to use that sick leave immediately, he doesn't have to wait the 12 months for FMLA.

It's clear the company's sick leave policy covers appointments for kids because the boss didn't say it had to be for OP. The boss instead asked about the medical needs of his minor child. So the policy covers family members. If a policy permits the use of sick leave for immediate family members, the company must apply this equally to all employees and cannot selectively approve sick leave on this basis. It's either covered or not, and we can presume it is covered or the boss would have said "our sick leave doesn't cover family members."

Regardless, the boss cannot ask for details about medical needs or procedures. It's a violation of privacy and will be especially protected because OP is talking about a minor child.

The boss can ask for documentation of the doctor's appointment, and some employers do this to ensure employees don't use sick leave inappropriately. However, you don't do this by asking directly for medical info, which is illegal. Instead you let your employee know they should submit a note from the doctor to the appropriate department (payroll or HR, who can verify the note and ensure the time is correctly approved as sick leave) within a certain number of days after the appointment. The boss never needs to see the note himself and should go out of his way to avoid asking for medical details.

I do think it's bad form for a workplace to ask for a doctor's note for an occasional short absence for an appointment, simply because it can be annoying to get these. My husband's office did this when I was pregnant, and for some reason my OB's office had trouble producing them, and it was a whole drama every time he accompanied me to an appointment, to the point that it actually ate up more of our time and made us later returning to work than we would have been otherwise. As a boss, I've only ever asked for documentation when I need it for another reason, like getting okayed on for temp assignment to cover someone or to process disability paperwork. That's for serious illnesses where someone can't work, not for a doctor's appointment. I've never asked any questions about a standard 2-3 hour absence for an appointment, that's none of my business.[/quote]

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