Unfair Sick Policy: We Don’t Want to Have to Work Sick

Fairfield University Sodexho workers are sporting neon stickers on their uniforms this week, but they are far from pieces of flair.

The stickers sport the slogan “Unfair Sick Policy: We Don’t Want to Have to Work Sick” and were distributed by union representatives as a display of solidarity.

Upset over a new policy on sick days instituted by Sodexho, union leaders are protesting the policy and have been engaged in arbitration with the Sodexho Corporation for a year or more, according to Gabriel Colon, Sodexho’s union steward at Fairfield.

The current policy allows workers two sick days in every 60 day period. Missing work because of illness beyond those 48 hours will lead to a write-up.

The sick-day policy itself is not the issue at hand, in fact Fairfield employs the same policy for their workers, according to Director of Human Resources Mark Guglielmoni.

Fairfield workers are allowed to call in sick without receiving a cited violation, and in cases of illnesses lasting beyond three days, supervisors may ask employees to produce proof of illness from a doctor, he said.

Sodexho workers’ written policy on absences clearly states that unexcused absences may result in termination, and like the Fairfield policy, after three days a doctor’s note should be produced. Unexcused absences, however, only include those that cannot be supported by proof from a doctor.

In a memo from Jerry Vincent, head of Labor Relations at Sodexho, he wrote to managers that “all sick occurrences will count as a violation.” As a direct result of these contradicting policies that violate the workers’ contracts, two employees have been terminated because of absences, despite the fact that one produced excuse for absence from a personal doctor, according to Colon.

When a sick-day violation occurs, the employee is written up. The first violation results in what is considered a verbal warning. The second and third violations are written violations; the fourth violation results in a three-day suspension and the fifth will lead to termination of employment, according to Colon.

Sick days are not just given out; rather they are accrued as each employee works a certain number of days. If they are not used, the days may be stored up in case of a later illness lasting several days. However this is not the case for Fairfield’s Sodexho workers. Employees are afraid to call in sick, and will come to work even if they have sick-days stored because they do not want to get a violation, Colon said.

Workers may come in and ask to leave, he said, but must wait until a replacement is called in. They actually have to show up, and they cannot just call in.

In the food service industry, especially, workers who are sick should not be coming into work, and students are upset to learn about the unfair practices happening on campus.

“First and foremost, I think it’s unfair to the workers because everyone’s entitled to a sick day, especially with a doctor’s note,” said Kristen Daly ’08. “Second, in the long run it’s harming everyone because having someone sick working around food is affecting others too.”

Other students felt the same way.

“I think they should have sick days off without penalty. They are handling my food,” Kyle Bono ’08 said. “It would be better to have them coughing at home rather than on the silverware.”

What is more intolerable, according to one student employed by Sodexho, the student workers are not held to the same policies and penalties as the workers employed from outside the University.

Fairfield University declined to comment, citing University policy to remain uninvolved with a matter that is being handled between the union and Sodexho.