How many sick days per year does your company’s benefits policy provide? A New Jersey case centers around an employee who took just four sick days.
Hospital technician Tracey Parks had taken three sick days in one year. Then she received written notice from the Cooper Health System in Camden, NJ, that she would be dismissed if she missed work again. Her absences were because either she or her asthmatic son was sick.
Then one morning, she had to call her supervisor to say she would be unable to come to work. Parks’ 4-year-old niece had been dropped off at her doorstep the night before because the child’s mother was homeless and couldn’t take care of her. No one else was available to care for the child.
Cooper fired her. She appealed a six-week unemployment disqualification which is imposed in cases of employee misconduct.
A state appeals court ruled Parks should not have been barred from collecting state unemployment benefits for the six weeks. The judge said all of Parks’ absences were justified by family emergencies.
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