Q: Can I ask my immediate supervisor or job foreman to use my paid sick leave? The business owner is saying I can not
I asked to use sick time for a dental appointment from my job site supervisor. The business owner I work for is telling me I won't be receiving my sick time because I didn't ask him ( the owner) if I could use the sick time. He is basically saying since I asked the job site supervisor and no one else about the sick time that it would not be allowed , but he is the supervisor or highest ranking field employee we have. To me this doesn't seem right but I wanted to make sure.
A:
The answer to your question depends on what kind of sick pay is being requested.
Several years ago California enacted a paid sick leave law that gives all employees the right to receive paid sick leave from their employer for things like medical appointments and illness. Under that law, there are a couple of options available to the employer, but the minimum amount of time that must be made available to the employee was three days per year. The law simply required the employee to give appropriate notice of the need for leave. Under that law, employers may have reasonable protocols in place for such notification, and the employer must clearly publish those protocols for employees to see and know. It would be a violation of that law to tell you after the fact for the first time that you have to inform a particular person of your need for leave.
Other than the CA paid sick leave law, many employers have additional sick leave policies whereby their employees are entitled to addition sick leave. Under those company policies, the employer get to completely define when and how sick leave can be exercised. Under a company sick leave plan, what this employer did may or may not be a violation of their own internal policies, but you likely have no practical way of enforcing those rights.
If you think your rights under the CA paid sick leave law were violated, you can file an administrative complaint with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
Good luck to you.
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