Re: throwing a sickie
The sicknote thing can be looked at in two ways. There is the view that this is BA management placing unreasonable demands on staff to prove that they were genuinely ill and not having a duvet day. There is also the point that BA has a duty of care to ensure staff are fit to work and will not endanger colleagues or themselves. By all means take time off if you are sick, but returning to work too early, particularly for flight and cabin crew can have some nasty repercussions. Last thing you want is to transmit a bug amongst fellow crew and customers. The air scrubbers on aircraft are good, but don't work on contacts. Then there's also the cost of medical aid downline if you have a relapse or pass it on to colleagues. Small wonder that there is a greater emphasis on fitess to work amongst crew than a lot of other parts of the airline. So in these circumstances, insisting on doctor's note is maybe not such an unreasonable request. Those who were genuinely ill should have had no problem in gettng a medic to issue one. OK so you might have had to shell out a few bob for it - GPs are known to see this as a useful earner. If the reason given to the GP is something vague like 'I had a funny tummy' or 'I felt sick' with nothing to provide a diagnosis, then in all probability you'll be out of luck GPs are not in the habit of providing dubious testimony - it's their reputation that is also on the line.
Claiming sick pay under false pretences is fraud isn't it ? So isn't a company entitled to ensure that its employees are not acting fraudulently ?