More and more, we are hearing from members about how their principals are requesting medical notes to support a recent absence. Your school administration should have no access to ANY medical information about you.
Medical notes and information should only be provided to the Disability Management department at the Education Centre (a department within the Employee Relations department). Any medical information that you provide to Disability Management is kept in a medical file, completely separate from your regular personnel file. Only a few employees who work within the Disability Management department have the right to see this information. Even the superintendent of this department cannot access your medical file.
If your principal or vice-principal requests a medical note to support an absence, you should do the following:
- Ask for the name of the employee in the Disability Management department that is requesting the note. If a name is not or cannot be provided, do not furnish the medical note to your principal and contact us at the local office to advise us of the request.
- If a name IS provided, send your medical note directly to that individual , either by fax or courier, marked CONFIDENTIAL. Do NOT provide a copy to your administration.
- If you have reason to believe that your administration is in possession of medical documentation about you (because you have provided doctor's notes to them in the past) , request that all medical notes be returned to you in a confidential manner (e.g., not stuffed loosely into your mail slot).
2 comments:
Hi Rachel...
Has there ever been a scenario where a doctor's note is requested but you are no longer ill? How does that work? Should I preemptively get one?
Hi Mr. B,
Yes, a note could be requested by Disability Management within a few days of your absence. This doesn't mean you should get a doctor's note for every absence - first off, this could become costly as many doctors will charge approx. $25 for a doctor's note. Secondly, not every sick day warrants a visit to the doctor's office (e.g., mild flu, bad cold, headache, stress day, etc.). If a note IS requested, you can either contact your doctor to get a note or go to a walk-in clinic.
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