Doctor sick notes necessary to curb absenteeism, says employers' council

Sick notes give employers a useful way to deal with unnecessary lost time, says a group representing employers in Newfoundland in Labrador, in an opposing stance to criticism of the notes from the medical community.

• Sick notes required by employers a strain on system, says NLMA

​Richard Alexander of the N.L. Employers' Council said it's only reasonable to require a sick note after an absence of three days, so managers have a way to deal with people who take sick days but may not actually be sick.

"There needs to be a balance, because attendance in our province and in our country is a massive issue and problem. Our government spends more on sick leave than it does on road construction in this province," he told the St. John's Morning Show.

"When someone is absent from the workplace for non-legitimate reasons, then that impacts coworkers, productivity and morale."

Earlier this week, Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association president Lynn Dwyer told CBC News that sick note requests are clogging up doctors' offices in the province and becoming a drain on physicians' time.

No plan to change laws

In an email to CBC, the provincial government said it has no plans to change the Labour Standards Act, which covers sick leave and medical notes.

Currently that act gives an employer the right to request a a note from a doctor or nurse practitioner after three days off.

Alexander said while it may seem like a waste of time from the doctors' perspective, it's a responsibility they've had for decades, and is similar to their responsibilities to conduct medical exams to approve someone for a certain job or to get their driver's licence back.

The concerns of the employer have to be taken into consideration when an employee takes a significant amount of time off, Alexander said, and requiring sick notes is the one tool they have to control those situations.

"We don't want to to flood the doctor's office with employees for one-day absences, but in specific situations where there's an issue that needs to be resolved or managed, then employers need to be able to retain that right to require medical documentation for those illnesses," he said.