[Teacher617]

I am the teachers' rights chair for my teachers association and am asking this question on behalf of a teacher who was hurt on the job last August. At that time, she filed all of the required paperwork and took days off from work. The back injury reasserted itself in March 07 and again she took days off. Throughout this school year, she has been seeing both a doctor and a physical therapist for her injury.

She was told by our Human Resources Dept to obtain a doctor's note stating that she did, indeed, need to have those days off from work in March. The doctor submitted a portion of this teacher's medical chart where the physical therapist stated the need for the teacher to be off from work and the doctor stated his agreement. This letter was deemed unacceptable by HR staff and the teacher was told she needed something from the doctor himself. There was NO further guidance regarding requirements for such a letter.

The teacher did obtain such a letter from the doctor, but HR has now told the teacher that the letter came "too late" to be used to validate the March days off. As a result, all days taken off have to be deducted from the teacher's personal leave bank, with possible loss of salary. She wants to fight this.

Is there a rule regarding how long an employee has to file a doctor's note regarding a medical injury and time off? If so, where might I find this information? If I pursue this matter, I want to have my facts straight.

[cbg]

No, there is nothing in the law dicating this.

The only exception I can think of is that IF the time is attributable to FMLA, the employee has up to 15 days to return the medical certification once the forms are given her by HR. If the forms are not completed within 15 days, the employer is not obligated to accept them and can deny FMLA, which would result in the time not being protected. Depending on the employer's policies, it could conceivably also result in time being taken from a paid leave bank, or not being taken from a paid leave bank, or other variations on a theme.

[Teacher617]

Thank you for your quick response. There was no issue with FMLA, so I'm hoping I can work to get this teacher's personal leave returned to her.