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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Default Sick and Personal Days in New Jersey

    A friend of mine works for two men who run a small law firm in NJ and they said “we’re a small firm so we don’t have one" when she asked for a copy of a handbook or something outlining how much sick, personal, vacation, holiday, etc time she is allowed to take.

    They also told her this: "Personal and sick days are understandable as long as they’re not excessive. You’ll get a week’s vacation after 6 months and another after a year.” She has been there 2.5+ years, and still they only allow her 1 week vacation time. There is nothing in writing, so obviously they can say they never said that to her.

    They give her problems every time she is sick. She is paid a salary, and does not receive overtime or any hourly pay. Currently she's very sick and would be able to provide doctor's notes attesting to her being contagious, however, they told her they will doc her pay if she does not come to work.

    Is there any legal action she can take in this situation?

    Also, are all businesses, regardless of size, required to provide a handbook/paperwork outlining allocations for personal days, holidays, sick days, etc?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Sick/Personal Days in NJ

    There is no law in any state, including NJ, that requires an employer to provide any sick or personal days. Or vacation days, for that matter. Paid days off are not a benefit required by law. Anywhere in the US.

    No business, anywhere in the US, is required by law to provide a handbook or policy manual.

    Outside of FMLA, where the employer is limited in how often they can ask for medical certification, the employer can ask for doctor's notes as often as they want to.

    As far as her legal recourse is concerned, I need a few questions answered first. There are a couple of different laws involved.

    1.) How many employees does the employer have within 75 miles of her location?
    2.) How long has she worked for this employer?
    3.) In the 12 months immediately preceding her leave, did she work a minimum of 1,250 hours?
    4.) What is the nature of her illness?

    Depending on the answers, there may be more, but that's enough to start with.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    18

    Default Re: Sick/Personal Days in NJ

    Quote Quoting cbg
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    There is no law in any state, including NJ, that requires an employer to provide any sick or personal days. Or vacation days, for that matter. Paid days off are not a benefit required by law. Anywhere in the US.

    No business, anywhere in the US, is required by law to provide a handbook or policy manual.

    Outside of FMLA, where the employer is limited in how often they can ask for medical certification, the employer can ask for doctor's notes as often as they want to.

    As far as her legal recourse is concerned, I need a few questions answered first. There are a couple of different laws involved.

    1.) How many employees does the employer have within 75 miles of her location?
    2.) How long has she worked for this employer?
    3.) In the 12 months immediately preceding her leave, did she work a minimum of 1,250 hours?
    4.) What is the nature of her illness?

    Depending on the answers, there may be more, but that's enough to start with.
    1. there are 3 full time employees, two of which are partners in the law firm, she is the other. there is one other part time employee. total of 4.
    2. 2 years and 9 months
    3. yes she worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months
    4. currently she has strep throat

    thank you!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
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    24,521

    Default Re: Sick and Personal Days in New Jersey

    Okay, FMLA does not apply. So that means I have to ask a couple more questions.

    How much time has she missed with the strep throat? How much time has she missed, say, in the last six months?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    18

    Default Re: Sick and Personal Days in New Jersey

    Quote Quoting cbg
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    Okay, FMLA does not apply. So that means I have to ask a couple more questions.

    How much time has she missed with the strep throat? How much time has she missed, say, in the last six months?
    she missed one day for the strep -- her boss told her he would doc her pay if she didnt show up today so she went in.

    she's take a total of 12.5 days since the beginning of the year. 5 days vacation, 3 holidays (both vacation and holidays were approved) and she's taken 4.5 sick days (including the one yesterday). it was pretty evenly distrubuted throughout the year, her sick days were 1-2 at a time, never more than that.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Sick and Personal Days in New Jersey

    Here's the deal.

    Nothing in the law requires them to provide her with any sick days at all. However, assuming she is an exempt employee (and they are treating her as exempt) she cannot be docked for time missed DUE TO ILLNESS (this does NOT hold true for days missed for other personal reasons) unless they also offer a reasonable number of paid sick days. They CAN, in these specific circumstances (again, this does not hold true all the time) fire her for missing time, even due to illness.

    The fact that they will offer what they consider to be reasonable sick time off makes this slightly problematic for her, and to be perfectly honest with you, 12.5 days off for a company with only 4 employees is a LOT. (The fact that the vacation days and holidays were approved does not mean that they are protected days off by law.) "Reasonable" is not defined by law; it is generally considered to be at least five days but it COULD BE (I am not saying, IS) that the extremely small size of the company might mean that "reasonable" is fewer days in this case. Only the DOL could say for certain.

    So what it comes down to is, it would have been illegal for them to dock her, but they didn't dock her; she came in, instead. In most states (I believe CA is the only exception) they didn't violate any laws by saying they WOULD dock her pay; it would only have been illegal if they had actually done so. And they could legally have fired her for not coming in.

    One caveat; a company that small MIGHT be exempt from the FLSA (not likely, but possible) and if that's the case, the reg I quoted above that says she can't be docked for time missed due to illness, does not apply.

    I am not unsympathetic and I understand that this answer puts her between a rock and a hard place. She *probably* has recourse if they dock her; she would have none if they fire her. If I were in her shoes, I'm not sure what I'd do, but one thing I do know is that she should be polishing up her resume since one way or another, I suspect she isn't going to be working there much longer.

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