So. Two weeks ago I had a sore throat and fatigue, and was asked to not come in to work the next 4 days as those symptoms meant that I failed my COVID survey. This was fine, I’m not trying to get anyone sick or dead by any means. I sat myself at home and only left to get a COVID test done. It came back negative and I was allowed to return to work that following Monday.
Yesterday I emailed HR to ask why I had not recieved any compensation for those 4 days, as I was told to not come into work. The reply I recieved goes as follows:Â
(Image Text:Â You were deemed a low risk per CDC guidelines. Therefore, according to those guidelines you did not qualify for a paid leave for your missed work time. Paid leave is only offered when there is a need for Public Health Department involvement.
Due to the late return to work notification on July 24th. You should have not received any disciplinary points for that date. If you did receive a point for that day please let me know and I will ask that it be removed. Thank you.)
Now. I agree, I did not actually have COVID (the only thing that results in public health department involvement) But I was still asked to stay home, and would have been removed by security had I attempted to come in. This I know for a fact as my boss let it slip to me on the prior occation I was asked to not come in for a day that they had to reactivate my door badge before I could come back, meaning I would not have even been able to get in the building. Â
These are measures are fine, given people who are sick should not be coming in at this moment since it could result in fellow workers being extremely ill or dying. That said, if they want workers, who have debts, and families, and bills, to answer this survey honestly prior to coming in everyday, they cannot not pay us for the days we’re asked to not come in. Especially since you just need 1 symptom to fail the survey and be told to not go to work.  I got lucky, under their own classifications, that my results only took 2 days to come in, if it had taken longer I would have been in a rather tight bind with my bills. If someone else has to go through this who didn’t have any savings to get them by they’d be much worse off. Â
I am already looking for different jobs, so I’m hopefully going to be leaving my corporation soon, but I just wanted to share this because I feel like it’s an extreme injustice, both to workers who are doing the right thing and staying home if they feel ill, but also to the workers who will have to be around people who are too afriad of loosing their houses or not feeding their children to report that they don’t feel well on their surveys. People could die because workplaces like mine (multi million dollor coorporations) are too stingey to pay people they’ve asked to stay home. This is dangerous and wrong but unfortunetely not surprising. Â
