# Wal Mart doesn't accept Dr's notes?



## Kstornado11 (Mar 17, 2006)

I have a friend on a pregnancy board who works for WM. Said that they told her they "don't accept" a note from the dr for when she has to miss work due to pregnancy complications or any other medical matter. Like if someone is ill, even if they have a note from their dr, it's still an unexcused abscence. Is this even legal? Sounds weird to me....? :shrug:


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## Selena (Jun 25, 2005)

Oh I think they might be crossing the line. It depends on how they handle other "illnesses" or injuries. If they accept a note from your Dr. if you have pneumonia and is then considered an excused absence, it is time to call the EEOC. She may want to do that any way.


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## giraffe_baby (Oct 15, 2005)

THey may not accept it, but tell your friend to throw in their face that each time she takes off falls under the FMLA ( family medical Leave act) IT IS A FEDERAL deal, they cant not count it against her, even if it is a once a month visit or a hospital stay! TELL HER look it up , belive me i have used it SEVERAL times!


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## roughingit (Apr 6, 2005)

I've had other places do the same thing. Seems to be common in large corporations that mostly employ minimum wage workers. One of them actually had "sick days" for full-time employees and still would not accept a doctor's not, they said it had to be from a hospital!


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## Kstornado11 (Mar 17, 2006)

giraffe_baby said:


> THey may not accept it, but tell your friend to throw in their face that each time she takes off falls under the FMLA ( family medical Leave act) IT IS A FEDERAL deal, they cant not count it against her, even if it is a once a month visit or a hospital stay! TELL HER look it up , belive me i have used it SEVERAL times!


Oh, yes... I used FMLA w/ my last pregnancy, as I had problems w/ high blood pressure. New law they passed some years back.


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## olehippy (Feb 2, 2005)

giraffe_baby said:


> THey may not accept it, but tell your friend to throw in their face that each time she takes off falls under the FMLA ( family medical Leave act) IT IS A FEDERAL deal, they cant not count it against her, even if it is a once a month visit or a hospital stay! TELL HER look it up , belive me i have used it SEVERAL times!


But she must be approved for FMLA you just can't start claiming your time off as FMLA.


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## moongirl (May 19, 2006)

Tell her that she needs to speak with payroll/human resources and obtain a packet of FMLA paperwork. She needs to have it filled out by her physician and signed. They can not fire her, count the days out against her etc. once this is signed by her manager and doctor. She is allowed up to 12 weeks per year as long as she has met the employee criteria. She has to have worked there long enough and put in enough hours etc.
I have this in place due to my DH's health issues. It has been a lifesaver. I had to use around 20 days in the past year. Would have been unemployed long ago without it.


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## Dorothea (May 10, 2004)

for family leave she has to had work there for 1 year ,,,if under a year they can refuse her,,,as for the note i thought they had to accpet them...Good luck to her and her baby


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

A friend of mine works at Wal-Mart. Had pneumonia and was hospitalized for a short time last winter. WM did not accept the note for anything more than a 3 day absence. 3 days or less and it was still counted against you. I think it has to be more than 3 days for FMLA, something to check into. But you can still be fired for missing too much work, several cases of that nature are currently underway through the legal process, employees fired for missing too much work, supposedly protected by FMLA, employers say employee wasn't doing their job and that was the reason for termination. FMLA may end up being another piece of toothless legislation before long.


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## Selena (Jun 25, 2005)

Yes there is a requirement for the number of HOURS you've worked over the past year. It doesn't have to be 40 hrs per week nor do you need to be an FTE. You can use FMLA time in 15 minute increments if need be. Benefits remain the same and you accrue pension time etc. during FMLA. Your employer can (and will) require you to use up all vacation days and sick time before allowing you to use FMLA. The kicker is you don't have to be paid for FMLA days.


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## Guest (Mar 26, 2007)

I didn't realize working for Wal-Mart qualified as a "real" job?


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## Chandler (Jan 12, 2007)

I work in HR and deal a lot with FMLA leave. You have to have worked 1250 hours within the last 12 months and it does not have to be consecutive time worked. You have to be approved for FMLA, usually with a medical certification from your doctor, but that is not always required with pregnancy (it's sometimes pretty obvious to see if someone is pregnant). They can also require that you request leave 30 days in advance for a foreseeable circumstance or they can deny your leave. Intermittent FMLA for pregnancy related issues is allowed and you can use time in as small an increment as your employer uses to keep track of time. So, if they are like my company and round to the nearest 15 minutes, you use it in 15 minute increments. If they count it in actual minutes work, I believe you can use as little as one minute of FMLA leave.

Also, your medical information is private under HIPAA regulations. So, the company would probably rather you not give your supervisor a doctor's note as it may have some medical information on it. Usually, only Human Resources is allowed, under HIPAA, to have access to any of this type of medical information. If you are approved for FMLA leave, your supervisor need only know you are approved to take time intermittently and that you need to take time under this intermittent leave, not the reason why.

If you are not approved for FMLA, whether or not they accept a doctor's note to excuse an absence is up to the Company's attendance policy. My company does not accept doctor's notes to excuse an absence because we have a no-fault attendance policy (that means that you are responsible for covering time with personal time or leave time according to the company policy or you get an occurrence/unexcused absence for the time you have missed).


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## Wags (Jun 2, 2002)

I had a city job - got pnemonia, they sent me home from the job because I could barely stand. I ended up missing a week from work, and while I did get my sick leave, the time off was counted against me on my next evaluation.


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## caroline00 (Nov 10, 2002)

my son worked for walmart for 6 years. The last 2 years he has had ulcerative colitis with a lot of time off. He has never had a problem. 

He recently went to a 5 month welding school and while he was at school, Walmart put him on a leave of absence, allowing him to work 1 day a week and still maintain his benefits for up to a year.

He quit a month ago to pursue welding.


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## FiddleKat (Oct 22, 2004)

giraffe_baby said:


> THey may not accept it, but tell your friend to throw in their face that each time she takes off falls under the FMLA ( family medical Leave act) IT IS A FEDERAL deal, they cant not count it against her, even if it is a once a month visit or a hospital stay! TELL HER look it up , belive me i have used it SEVERAL times!


Yes, that is what I was thinking as well. That its a FEDERAL LAW now, and she needs to look into it. It may be grounds for a lawsuit in her favor.


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## FiddleKat (Oct 22, 2004)

Stinkfinger said:


> I didn't realize working for Wal-Mart qualified as a "real" job?



So what are you saying? People who work low income retail jobs such as cashiers, are not really "employed"? If your out "working" and receive a paycheck, its still a job and a real one at that.


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## Chandler (Jan 12, 2007)

FiddleKat said:


> Yes, that is what I was thinking as well. That its a FEDERAL LAW now, and she needs to look into it. It may be grounds for a lawsuit in her favor.


They can count it against her if she has not applied and been approved for a leave under FMLA. It doesn't just happen automatically.


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## caroline00 (Nov 10, 2002)

There are so many exceptions with the family leave law...

I was unable to get the leave when we 1) had an adoption 2) had a baby with major surgery (both at the same time) because of loopholes with my employer....

and I basically said...
ok, if you cant do without me for one month, see how you do without me forever... and I quit....


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

Kstornado11 said:


> I have a friend on a pregnancy board who works for WM. Said that they told her they "don't accept" a note from the dr for when she has to miss work due to pregnancy complications or any other medical matter. Like if someone is ill, even if they have a note from their dr, it's still an unexcused abscence. Is this even legal? Sounds weird to me....? :shrug:



Has your friend presented her FMLA information to her boss..is she eligible? Is she on intermittent FMLA? If so, they could be violating federal law.


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## rabbitsbus (Mar 3, 2007)

Another reason to "love" WM. I think WM has recently changed their policies with regard to workers. School mate of mine that works there, I recently saw and asked about her mom ( lady had been beloved classroom mom) and the friend tearfully explained that her mom had cancer. She didn't know how she would be able to take her for treatments because WM had recently gone to a "point system". Any absence for ANY reason resulted in losing a point. If you aquire enough points within 6 months, you are fired. Get sick and miss 3 days in a row, automatically you are on leave. BUT, when well and ready to come back, they do not have to have a place for you. Another employee heard us talking and said she had come to work with the flu for fear of this point system. I walked away feeling sad for these folks. Though what they're doing to this worker with a Dr. note sounds illegal, I bet WM has lawyers that wormed something to protect themselves from being sued about this policy.


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## olehippy (Feb 2, 2005)

rabbitsbus said:


> Another reason to "love" WM. I think WM has recently changed their policies with regard to workers. School mate of mine that works there, I recently saw and asked about her mom ( lady had been beloved classroom mom) and the friend tearfully explained that her mom had cancer. She didn't know how she would be able to take her for treatments because WM had recently gone to a "point system". Any absence for ANY reason resulted in losing a point. If you aquire enough points within 6 months, you are fired. Get sick and miss 3 days in a row, automatically you are on leave. BUT, when well and ready to come back, they do not have to have a place for you. Another employee heard us talking and said she had come to work with the flu for fear of this point system. I walked away feeling sad for these folks. Though what they're doing to this worker with a Dr. note sounds illegal, I bet WM has lawyers that wormed something to protect themselves from being sued about this policy.


The point system is common in a lot of businesses not just WM. Most of the time the point is for the first day and all consecutive days. Ex. If you miss March 26, 27 & 28 you would receive 1 point not 3.


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## danoon (Dec 20, 2006)

I had to leave a job for a month when Mom had hip surgery and Dad had a stroke the day she came home from the hospital. I explained to my employer that there was no one else to watch them and asked for a leave of absence. I was told it wasn't a problem and to come back as soon as I could. 

One month later I returned home and to work and after my first check I realized I was making five dollars less an hour. My supervisor explained that the big boss had fired me for not getting a LOA but my supervisor rehired me. The supervisor gave me a "raise" back to my old pay grade but I still lost all seniority which resulted in a layoff two years later. 

I think employers can do just about anything they want anymore.


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## KCM (Sep 26, 2005)

It is not against the law for an employer to have a strict attendance policy, and in my opinion there should NEVER be a law that says an employer has to recognize a Dr. excuse. Too many employees take advantage of every loophole in an attendance policy. They run to the Doctor everytime they "don't feel like working", and the Doctor will give them a Doctor excuse everytime. That is not fair to the majority of employees who do not take advantage of the system. 

The no-fault attendance policy is the most fair to all employees. If the employee really has a serious medical condition, that is what FMLA is for.


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2007)

FiddleKat said:


> So what are you saying? People who work low income retail jobs such as cashiers, are not really "employed"? If your out "working" and receive a paycheck, its still a job and a real one at that.


I admire anyone that works, regardless of the job, including garbage collectors, dish washers, and that includes people that work at Wal-Mart. But I despise this corporation like no other. They are a miserable excuse for an employer. Low wages and they've gotten so huge in Corporate America that they get by with work practices that were condemned 30 years ago.

This thread is a prime example of how low they can go and abuse their employees. I've heard some people say that Sam Walton wouldn't have tolerated what they do now...........and to that I say phooey!!! Sam Walton's spirit is alive and well in the sub-standard work practices of Wal-Mart. I hate em! :flame:


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## moongirl (May 19, 2006)

Selena said:


> Your employer can (and will) require you to use up all vacation days and sick time before allowing you to use FMLA. The kicker is you don't have to be paid for FMLA days.


Where do you work?? I never have to use any of my time to cover my FMLA leave if I don't want to?? I often CHOOSE to use some to cover myself so my check isn't too small.


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## stirfamily (Jun 18, 2002)

I like WalMart. My mom worked there and was hurt on the job. They treated her like a queen. Paid all her medical bills and everything for months.
Karen in Indiana


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## Chandler (Jan 12, 2007)

moongirl said:


> Where do you work?? I never have to use any of my time to cover my FMLA leave if I don't want to?? I often CHOOSE to use some to cover myself so my check isn't too small.


My company (and I work for a manufacturing company so most of our employees are assembly line workers) requires employees to use 40 hours of vacation towards their FMLA leave. We do not require them to use any of their personal/sick time, but we could if we felt we needed to. We do this for two reasons: 1. it helps the employee bridge the gap between their pay and the start of their short-term disability (it has a 7 day waiting period) if they are out for an extended medical leave and 2. it *should* deter those who might not use FMLA the way it was intended (we see a lot of abuse so we have strict policies to try to control it)


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## Selena (Jun 25, 2005)

moongirl said:


> Where do you work?? I never have to use any of my time to cover my FMLA leave if I don't want to?? I often CHOOSE to use some to cover myself so my check isn't too small.


Every company for which I've worked since FMLA became law required me to use up sick days, personal days (if any), and vacation before FMLA. This is a "loophole" albeit probably a decent one as why should you be allowed to use FMLA (regardless of how vacation is determined) before you've exhausted your other options? It has gotten better as my employer when FMLA first became law would consider the 6 weeks of maternity leave, then my 4 weeks of vacation, leaving me with only 2 weeks available under FMLA.


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