Can an Employer Make You Use Unpaid Leave for Doctor Visits

[StillKickin]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Illinois

In February of this year I was diagnosed with a terminal illness that will likely destroy my internal organs, starting with my kidneys, within a few years. To help combat this disease, I take drug therapy every 2 weeks that requires me to miss a half day of work. I recently learned that while I am being docked for these doctor visits, my co-workers (there are five) with regular doctors' appointments are not. Isn't this discrimination?

[jk]

do your co-workers have regular appointments every other week that cause them to miss 1/2 day?

do any of you have any sort of PTO/vacation/whatever? If so is it possible they have not used all of their time but you have?

are all of you salaried or hourly? are you co-workers on the same level of employee as yourself?

[Lehk]

additional PTO is not required by FMLA or the ADA.

[cbg]

There are a number of reasons why this may be so; many of those reasons legal. The most likely one is that your visits are protected by FMLA, which is defined by statute as unpaid, and theirs are not.

[StillKickin]

We are all hourly employees. I still have a week's vacation left, so far they have not asked me to use it. I can't say if we get paid time off/personal days as I'd never missed any work (in 8 years) until I went into the hospital in January. My co-workers don't have regular 2-week appointments like I do, but one of them has had a heart attack (at age 35) and misses much more work than I do, both with doctor visits and going home early because he's "sick". Not sure what you mean by "same level of employee" so I'll just tell you I am the only one in the shop that knows how to do what I do and I am well compensated for it. Hope this helps. Thanks for all the responses.

[jk]

same level of employee

examples of various levels:

owner
administrative personnel
general worker

would they be considered the same level of employee as you?

are the others using vacation time so they are paid?

[StillKickin]

Ok, gotcha. Yes we would all be considered the same level of employee and no, they are not using their vacation time.

[LawResearcherMissy]

How do you know that your co-workers are getting the time off with pay?

In any case, yes, you can be required to take the time without pay for doctor visits.

[jk]

Ok, gotcha. Yes we would all be considered the same level of employee and no, they are not using their vacation time.

Ok, so you are saying these other employees are simply being paid for time NOT worked out of the goodwill of the employers heart?

I think you are missing something in your situation.

[cbg]

To the OP -

First, I doubt you are privy to all the details of everyone else's arrangements with the employer as to their time off, paid or unpaid.

Second, there are numerous laws that have to be complied with when it comes to time off for medical reasons, and not every law applies in all situations. Everyone's situation is different; therefore everyone's pay arrangements may be different. Not only is it not illegal to have different pay arrangements for different employees, depending on the situation it might be illegal not to.

Finally, the bottom line is that how or whether other people get paid for their time off is none of your freakin' business. You have posted nothing to suggest that your employer is doing anything illegal; it is legal for YOUR time to be unpaid and that's the only issue that you need to be aware of. Unless you have valid and supportable evidence (and I mean evidence that would hold up in a court of law) not only that you and only you are not being paid for this time but ALSO that you and only you are not being paid SPECIFICALLY for a reason prohibited by law, then just get your nose out of everyone else's paycheck before you end up on the wrong side of a permanent vacation. And yes, that would be legal.