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When an employee presents you with a doctor’s note after an absence, you will need to determine whether the absence should be legally protected, such as under the disability accommodation or family leave laws, or whether the absences simply are unprotected sick days, such as for a cold or a medical appointment for a minor ailment.
When determining whether discipline is appropriate, the employer must first consider whether the employee’s absence qualifies as either a:
In making that determination, the employer should not only look to the information provided in the doctor’s note, but also other information the employee may have provided to their supervisor, manager or human resources.
For example, an employee’s note may simply say something like “Suzy was seen in our office on [date],” but Suzy told her supervisor she went to the doctor to seek treatment for her seizure disorder.
Because a seizure disorder can be both a disability and a serious health condition protected under all four laws mentioned above, the employer is now on notice that it should consider which of these legal protections might apply.
It’s important to remember that an employee does not specifically have to ask for “family leave” or walk into the human resources office saying, “I need a reasonable accommodation for my disability.” The law essentially presumes that employees are not experts in these laws and focuses instead on whether the employer knew or should have known that the employee had a disability or serious health condition entitling them to legal protections.
If the employer knows (or should have known), then the responsibility falls to the employer to:
Under either circumstance, the employer will be entitled to further medical certification beyond a simple note that the employee was seen by the doctor on a particular date.
The certification will need to substantiate that the employee has a disability or serious health condition, and provide certain additional information depending on which law applies.
Keep in mind that a doctor’s note may provide legal protection from discipline in a few other situations, such as pregnancy disability leave, organ or bone marrow donation leave, or time off for medical treatment related to a crime or domestic abuse.
Read more about Certification for Family and Medical Leave in the HR Library.