Duty to act laws? - Page 1

First off let me tell you the story....

2 weeks ago my female bloated right as I was about to leave for work at 2100.   I immediately knew what was happening, called my vet, the ER and then my supervisor.  I stated I had to take my dog to the hospital, it is an emergency, and I would be in asap.  My supervisor (low level) said Okay and I left.  I arrived at the ER at 2135hrs, checked her in, filled out paperwork and spoke to the Dr....I paid the deposit (ouch) then left for work.  I called and spoke to another supervisor (same level) and said I was on my way at 2215 and would arrive around 2300...I clocked in at 2304...my shift starts at 2145.

My bitch ended up needing surgery to reposition and tack her stomach and she has about 4 inches of staples on her belly.

Long story short, I recieved disciplinary action from upper management for being late to work on that night.  They did not accept the vet hospital documents as an "excuse" for being 1.25HRS LATE.  They said to my union stuart "where do we draw the line?"

You can imagine my outrage!!!!  This will be grieved and I will likely win but I'd like to gather as much info as possible.

I wanted to know if there is some kind of animal cruelty law in PA that would make it criminal for me not to act in this situation.  Any info on where I can find it or any input woudl be appreciated.

I have County job in Juvenlie corrections.

Regards,

Melanie

Also...I have a clean record and haven't been late to work in about 5 years.

Regards,

Melanie

Melanie,

Denial  of medical care for a sick or injured animal in your posession is almost always a criminal offense.  I would call your local animal control and get the laws from them!  Hope your dog is doing well now!

Vickie Lanig

www.PowerHausKennels.com

The focus needs to be on your company's absence management policy.

Abseenteeism and its associated consequences should be clearly spelled out in there.

Melanie:

Unbelievable how some people interpret absentee policies.  We are not union, but at one point at my company implemented a new policy - which meant if you were more than 15 minutes late arriving at work, they would consider you had taken 1/2 day - and charge that to your vacation or sick.  So what did people do if they found the were running late in traffic?  Of course, they turned around and went home and called out sick.  The absentee rate muliplied by 5 x.   Needless to say this policy was changed within a year.

I am sure there is something documented regarding providing medical care to our pets.  I will search around and see if I can find it.  Cannot believe they felt the need to write you up after one late in 5 years.  You probably would have been better calling out sick.

Glad to here Chili is doing well. 

Cheryl

This is not a labour council messageboard, but let me say this:

What is stated in your labour contract? Do you know? What is stated in the agency's attendance policy? Do you know? I do not want to sound like a wiseacre; but why is your steward not doing his/her job? That is a job of the steward (and vice-president and president) to defend you and appeal to manangement should your case have merit.

You stated that you had not been late in five (5) years. In many, if not most agencies this will not matter. The agency of course can apply a disciplinary action-i.e. you were late for work. Unless the attendance policy contains a well-described clarification of what is an excusable absence and what is a non-excusable absence then your occurrence of absenteeism is just that-an occurrence that is non-excusable.Again; what is contained in the attendance policy? Is there an attendance policy?

Many companies/agencies avoid differentiating absenteeism occurrences as either excusable or non-excusable because the ugly face of shop politics can show itself and apply favouritism to the more "believeable" employee.

I base my statements on my experience as a professional manager in a firm that had a collective-bargaining unit. In that firm, the attendance policy stated that an occurrence was an occurrence and could not be excused for any reason. There was a progressive disciplinary process, i.e. step one-counseling, step two-written warning, step three-final warning, etc..

I will also ask this question: What if this was a member of your human family that needed emergency care? What does your attendance policy say? If there is nothing about that circumstance stated in the attendance policy (and there probably is not) then you incurred an occurrence and there is nothing that can be done about it.

You did the right thing, and one that any dog lover would have done.

Regards,

Bob-O

Ohmagod Melli! Thank goodness you got her taken care of in time.  After all the double-shifts and mandos they have made you work for so many years they want to ding you for this? You need a new job! 

SS

Your lucky to have a union steward, my son just got canned because his supervisor didnt like my sons friendship with the supervisors grandmother, and the HR dept. head doesnt like men period.  This is a subsidiary of Toyota and they wont allow a union.  This place is governed by who you know, who likes you, and who your related to. Everyone whos not in the chosen circle gets crapped on, abused , and sooner or later either quits or gets fired.   These employee's have no representation at all.  So.. best of luck, but I'd take my licking and keep below the radar fron now on, that seems to be the way of it these days...  very disturbing.

Now, I'm very curious because the topic has come up a time or two before. How are your dogs getting bloated? Everyone?

Maybe a new post would be in order.

Melanie- That really sucks! I, too, have a job that I have poured my heart into, stayed over during snowstorms to make sure patients were taken care of, worked a 24 hour shift with nothing more than a nap break 'cause no one else could get in, (tho' I live an hour away, unlike many of my colleages)---& then was 'written up' for an absence even tho' it was excused by my MD. I'm glad your girl is going to be OK, focus on the positive, and don't let the bastards get you down. Sounds trite, but that's how you keep your sanity in an ugly world. You know, and we know, you did the right thing. Hope your greivance goes through; the service workers union I was a member of for a while was terrible, took your dues but didn't do much for you.... Good Luck! jackie harris

Melanie,this is why guys like me cant work for someone else.I think i would of flipped and told them where they can stick there job if that would of been me.I cant stand companies that cant respect an incident like yours happening.What were you sopposed to do,let your dog die that horrible death?I think its totally uncalled for given the fact that you still had enough respect for them to take the time to call even with such an emergency going on.Anyway,I hope that your dog heals well and it never happens again.Keep your chin up ,things will work themselves out.Good luck young lady,and dont forget that the devil cant always stay in one place,he has to move.I hope you get the meaning of that.