Hopefully someone can help me out here. A woman where I work (NJ) has been abusing the company “sick time” policy. We’re allowed 5 sick/personal days and she’s been out a total of 25 sick days. She’s salaried and considered exempt. Management initially used her vacation time to cover her overage, but now she’s out of vacation time too. She seems to feel that because she’s salaried and exempt she’s entitled to as many days out as she feels necessary. I’m of the opinion that’s not the way it works, but I’m no legal expert and after visiting http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.118.htm I got lost in all the legal speak. Can anyone tell me if she’s right or wrong and in terms that I can understand? Thanks!

The 541.118 regulation got replaced in 2004. The current regulation is now 541.602. Deductions when sick pay is used up is allowed assuming a "bona fide" sick pay plan exists. This is generally taken to mean by federal DOL as a plan which provides 5 or more paid sick days per year.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_541/29CFR541.602.htm

(2) Deductions from pay may be made for absences of one or more full days occasioned by sickness or disability (including work-related accidents) if the deduction is made in accordance with a bona fide plan, policy or practice of providing compensation for loss of salary occasioned by such sickness or disability.

She is wrong. While depending on the overall sick time policy she may or may not have to be paid for all those sick days, unless FMLA (or possibly the ADA depending on the details) is involved she most certainly can be disciplined or fired for excessive absences.

At a real company she’d be fired, unfortunately my company only “pretends” to be real <LOL>. Readers Digest version is she’ll never be fired as long as the owner is alive, but management has taken steps to stop her from abusing the policy as it obviously leads to moral problems with other employees.

Thanks for your help.