The high-profile contract dispute between rail carriers and their employees that nearly shut down the nation’s supply chains has renewed scrutiny on workplace sick leave and attendance policies.
Roughly 125,000 US rail workers were on the verge of walking off the job last month when negotiations between their unions and rail companies soured over the long-running issues of sick leave and attendance policies.
Many rail employees are required to work 12 hours a day and are frequently on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When scheduling time off, rail workers say they often have to make the requests months in advance.
Some sick leave protections under the Family and Medical Leave Act guarantee unpaid job-protected leave for up to 12 weeks when an employee is sick, caring for a newborn or newly adopted child, or caring for an immediate family member with a serious health condition.
But the FMLA only applies when an employee has worked at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months. Rail carriers don’t count time toward FMLA eligibility when a rail worker is on call, leaving many rail employees out, said Jared Cassity, Alternate National Legislative Director for SMART’s Transportation Division. The lack of protections made the sick leave issue a particular sticking point in the contract negotiations that came to a head last month.
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