UT Staff Absence Policy and
Gender Issues
Council of the
Women’s Leadership Forum
Staff Absence Policy
• Applies to AFSCME and CWA workers
• For AFSCME employees, taking more than
two hours of sick leave results in one “point.”
12 points leads to termination. If scheduled
to work on a weekend, the employee gets
two “points” if they are sick.
• For CWA employees, taking more than two
hours of sick leave results in one “point.” 16
points leads to termination
Exemptions
• Employees with chronic health issues, or
are caregivers for those with chronic
issues, can request an exemption under
FMLA
• As far as we have been able to determine,
this exemption is only for chronic issues,
not common illnesses
Policy Impact
• The WLF believes this policy, while
applied equally to men and women, has
gender implications
Women are largely responsible for not only their own
health care needs, but those of children, spouses, and
aging parents
Women’s health issues generally require more
doctor visits and time away from work
Women make up the vast majority of staff
employees
Policy Impact
• Anecdotal evidence shows the burden
placed on female employees
• Statistical evidence show impact is about
the same between men and women based
on percentages of employees facing
disciplinary actions for excessive sick
leave time, but women are approximately
75 percent of our staff
Policy Impact
• Policy can force employees to come to work sick rather
than face losing their job. If patient care and studentcenteredness are among our primary goals, we should
not have in place a policy that encourages this.
• Policy is not family-friendly
• Decisions about when a sick child must stay home are
often determined by daycare or school, not by parents.
Therefore, it is especially burdensome for families with
small children.
• Policy is not conducive to “improving the human
condition”
• While students were given exemptions from class
absence policy during H1N1 outbreak in 2010, staff were
not. Policy remained in effect
Policy Impact
• Policy is uncommon among other public
universities in Ohio. To date, we have not found
another Ohio public university with such a policy
in place. However some for-profit companies,
including Wal-Mart, do have similar policies.
• Policy is out-of-touch with current human
resource concepts, such as allowing employees
to work at home when caring for sick children
• Policy can lead to the termination of employees
for reasons unrelated to job performance
Policy Impact
• Policy reduces staff morale, a recognized key
factor in successful organizations. It is not in
keeping with our stated institutional goal of being
recognized nationally as “a great place to work.”
• Policy increases stress among excellent
employees who fear losing their jobs.
• Policy does not prohibit abusers from continuing
sick leave abuse—they just have to complete an
FMLA form.
• Additional paperwork required to implement
policy costs money.
Policy Impact
• While some people abuse sick leave, this
is a management issue to be addressed at
the individual employee level, not by
implementing a blanket policy that impacts
all.
• The policy is not uniformly applied by
supervisors, and it is not even uniformly
understood.
View of the
Women’s Leadership Forum
• No employee, male or female, should ever have
to choose between caring for their own illness or
losing their job.
• No employee, male or female, should ever have
to choose between caring for their sick child and
losing their job, especially when many depend
upon their employment to provide health care for
their family members.
• Policy may encourage desperate parents to
leave sick children with those unable to provide
adequate care.
Conclusion
• If we are an institution that has health care
as a major component of our mission, why
are we penalizing our own employees for
being sick?
• Rather than a punitive one, we need an
absence policy modeled on concerns of
wellness, both for the employee and the
public and students they serve.