Monday, June 22, 2009

The Business End of Being Sick

Admittedly, the school officials took good care of me when I was sick. They took me to the doctor numerous times, made sure I got my medicine and got me to the hospital when necessary.

But now that we're trying to come to an agreement on how many sick days and vacation days I can use, their attitudes have changed a bit.

First, they tried to make me feel guilty about even asking for my compensation. They told me how much they cared for me and how concerned they were. Like I said, that is all true. But were they really just going to let me die instead of taking me to the hospital?

My contract says that I should get compensated for my sick days. It doesn't say a number of days. It just says that I will be paid for sick leave. Of course, they're arguing against that. My recruiter had to call them to even get me 3 sick days, which he said is standard. Fine.

So then they offered to let me use my vacation pay. I said fine. That is for 10 days. Well, first they said fine. Then they said it should be 8 days because all teachers have one vacation day in the summer and winter. That doesn't have anything to do with my contract. It says nothing about mandatory days off being taken from my vacation days.

Now, I hear that they want to give me even less than 8 days because they're giving teachers a couple days off this month or next month.

I was supposed to get paid on the June 15. I realize I wouldn't get paid this month because of my hospital bills, but I should've received a pay slip telling me what was taken and how much I'll still owe next month. I still haven't received it.

We were supposed to have a meeting to sort all this out, but one of my bosses won't answer my phone calls and has avoided all the scheduled meetings so far.

I read on many websites how employers will try to screw you, so I half knew this would happen. It just sucks to be going through it.

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