Forcing TTC workers to get a doctor’s note after one day of sickness — one of the most stringent policies in the province — has cut absentee rates but is drawing fire from union leaders and the Ontario Medical Association.

“There is definitely a percentage of members that when they are feeling an ailment for a day will suck it up and come into work,” says Bob Kinnear, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113.

“That is probably not good for the employees internally and probably not in the best interest of the public,” says Kinnear, whose union represents nearly 10,000 TTC workers. He raised fears that bus or streetcar drivers could easily pass flus and colds to the passengers jammed into their vehicles.

But the TTC says the one-day rule was implemented to try to tame high employee absenteeism across the system and that the strategy appears to be working.

Spokesperson Brad Ross said that before the rule’s implementation in 2012, when the collective agreement kicked in, workers were given a five-day grace period and that the absence rate among unionized workers had grown to 8.42 per cent.

“And then in 2012 . . . the absenteeism rate dropped to 7.7 per cent, that’s just after one year,” he said.

“I don’t have 2013’s (numbers) yet, but it’s trending in the right direction.”

The transit commission’s zero-tolerance policy, brought in under contract arbitration in 2011, says unionized employees must submit a written doctor’s note attesting to their ailments within 72 hours of their bookoff or lose the 75-per-cent sick pay they are entitled to for days off.

Kinnear’s concerns were voiced in the wake of this week’s proclamation by OMA president Dr. Scott Wooder that sick workers should stay home and not be forced to obtain a doctor’s note.

“No employer should require a sick note on the first day of an absence,” Wooder said in an interview Friday. “It doesn’t make sense.”

While not commenting directly on the TTC rule, he said it was highly probable that many sick workers would not be able to see a heavily booked family doctor in the given time.

“And a lot of these employees will end up in the emergency department and if they have infectious illnesses they are going to put other people at risk,” Wooder said.

Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan said the TTC book-off rule is the most burdensome he’s encountered.

“I have not heard of any other employer demanding (a note) after one day’s absence,” Ryan said.

“That’s being punitive and creating a massive burden on the health care system.”

Ryan said most employers give at least two days’ leeway before requiring a doctor’s note.

At GO Transit, unionized staff can take five sick days in a row before a physician’s note is required. Yet absentee rates declined from 5.53 per cent for 2011-2012, to 4.69 per cent for 2012-2013.

Go employees also receive 100 per cent of pay for their first six sick days of the year and 80 per cent pay for an additional six months.

At Ottawa’s OC Transpo, sick notes are normally required for transit workers after four straight days off, or if the employee has exhausted six days annually of uncertified leave.

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Kinnear argued that sick and potentially medicated operators might not be at their best behind the wheel.

“It is important that they (the TTC) recognize the safety aspect and recognize that it is important that we ensure that we have completely alert operators out there,” he said.

“You (should) want to make clear to the operators, to the people that are in safety-sensitive positions that if you are under the weather, if you are taking antihistamines, we don’t want you driving.

“But the TTC … does not encourage that, in fact they very assertively encourage people to come in.”

Kinnear said commission management is using the province’s health system as a tool to police its employees.

Ross said the commission owed it to taxpayers and its riders to rein in the costs associated with high absentee levels.

(Among TTC managers the absentee rate has held steady for a considerable time at around 3.5 per cent, Ross said.)

“It was felt that those (former) five days were not being used necessarily for sickness or for illness but seen by some … as vacation time.”

As for union safety concerns, he says that it’s incumbent on sick employees to stay home, despite the doctor’s note requirements.

“If you are sick, if you are unable to work, if you are fatigued in any way, if you are not fit for duty, you need to stay home,” Ross said.

“That’s why we have this (75-per-cent sick pay) benefit.”

As part of the collective agreement, the note rule can’t be changed until the contract expires at the end of March, Ross said.

In the country’s workforce overall, personal absentee rates — which includes illness, disability or personal and family reasons — hit 8.1 per cent for an average week in 2011, according to Statistics Canada.

The same report showed absentee rates in the public sector for illness and disability reasons alone at eight per cent that year, with the private sector workforce at 5.2 per cent.

In the federal civil service, absenteeism due to illness and disability logged in at 10.5 per cent; with an 8 per cent figure in their provincial counterparts it was 8 per cent.

TTC bus driver Marvin Alfred said the rule is far too much of a burden for employees, some of whom may just choose work over a trip to the doctor’s when they’re sick.

“They’d rather just not deal with the frustration and just go to work and not in the best of health,” Alfred said.

The 13-year veteran says he had not taken a sick day in four years at one point and that he was forced to get a note for a two-day absence. Alfred, also a union steward, said his spotless attendance record should have earned him a degree of respect.

“That’s not conducive to a healthy relationship with the company,” Alfred said.

Uniformed members of the Toronto Police Service are only required to supply doctor’s notes when they are requested by their unit commander.

Civilian employees must be absent more than three consecutive days and have seven days to furnish a note.

The City of Toronto, which employs around 33,000 people, asks for doctor’s notes from non-union, union and management employees who take more than three consecutive sick days, spokesperson Jackie DeSouza told the Star’s Alex Ballingall.

Teachers with the Toronto District School Board need a doctor’s note after taking five consecutive sick days, but they can be asked for one earlier if there are concerns about the absence.