I work as a direct-hire AET for a city’s BoE, and showed up at one of my schools with a dry throat and small headache.
Made the mistake of telling an English support volunteer, and she freaked out and told the principal, who then called the BoE. (None of the actual teachers were worried whatsoever :/) They gave me the ultimatum of going to a clinic to get tested and use sick leave, or use paid leave. But I absolutely couldn’t stay at the school because the volunteer felt uncomfortable.
Is this legal at all? I know there are special Covid rules in places, but this seems… extreme. Like, are we all expected to skip work every time we sneeze?
/pseudo rant over
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Not extreme whatsoever.. You do realise if you have covid that they have to pretty much send all the kids that have been in close contact (your classes) home for isolation. This causes class cancellations and so much extra work for everyone.
Just had this happen with one of my sons whos in JHS. Whole class sent home for the next week or longer if they came up positive
Side note – The volunteer had Covid last month and missed two weeks. And also, after I got my call, she made some excuse to go home as well (my daughter is actually sick with fever and cough, which is bullshit, because she’d be even more of a risk than I am in that case).
You are asking three separate questions.
1. Can an employer force you to use leave.
2. Can an employer force you to take a medical check.
3. Is it right that you take leave if you are suspected of having covid.
In the case of 1 and 2, I would suggest you seek advice outside of “angry people on internet”.
In the case of 3 I would say it is correct that you do not inconvenience the children or their parents. Not only in the interest of common courtesy, but also because it will make your relationship with your employer easier.
My advice would be to say that you will take the test, but because you are not convinced that you are ill you will expect pay as you are going to get tested and wait for the results on their orders. Unless they have mentioned that you should take paid leave explicitly, I would argue this later. If you lose a day, then lose a day. It’s probably not worth throwing your job away over. If you are asked to lose more than a day, I would say to send an email saying that you assumed that as you had been asked to take the test by them it was covered as an order from your employer and you should be able to receive pay.
If you are able to work remotely this solves this issue, but my suspicion is the answer to this question is no.
I think it’s at the discretion of the employer and this is what the law also seems to suggest. When I had to stay home due to being identified as a close contact I got paid leave but others I know were told to take the time as holiday. I was only told to stay home a day and see if a fever developed and as it didn’t, they allowed me back the next day.