County votes to send sick staffers home

Local News

Discussion

PLEASE NOTE: There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

ALSO NOTE: Derisive name-calling of an individual or group will result in the entire comment being deleted. This includes the terms "stupid" and "idiot" and similar references.

Welcome to our new online comments feature. Before you can join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address.

Once you do, your comments will post after they have been reviewed by a moderator.

We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified, at the newspaper’s discretion, for a number of reasons. Here are some typical practices to avoid in trying to get your comment printed:

There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

Don’t state as a fact something that is unsubstantiated or that our editors wouldn't know to be true.

Don’t presume someone’s guilt in a case when it hasn't been established by a court.

Don’t assail or impugn an identifiable individual or group. If you have that kind of criticism, sign your name and submit it as a Letter to the Editor. (There is some leeway on this in connection with public officials, but it is not unconditional.)

Don’t use profanity. This includes the term “tea bagger.”

Don’t be incendiary or tasteless. Those qualities are subjective, of course, and our editors will be the arbiters.

Do not identify yourself in the main content area of the article content form. Only by enforcing this rule can the moderators prevent unscrupulous commenters from falsely identifying themselves as someone they are not.

Don't type in all caps. It is considered the Internet equivalent of shouting.

In sports articles, do not criticize officiating.

Remember, moderators are not allowed to edit any article comments. If an article comment fails any of the above criteria, the entire comment will be deleted.

We monitor comments Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Approval of comments outside these times may be delayed.

comments powered by Disqus

October 5, 2009

Essex supervisors debate managers' role in H1N1

By LOHR McKINSTRY The Press Republican Mon Oct 05, 2009, 11:28 PM EDT

ELIZABETHTOWN — Although how it would be enforced was controversial, Essex County lawmakers decided by split vote that county employees who come to work with swine-flu symptoms will be sent home.

The County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to allow department heads to order workers who may have the H1N1 influenza virus to go home.

"People will come to work when they're ill," County Attorney Daniel Manning III said. "We've got a possible pandemic. We're trying to prepare for it."

He said anyone sent home would use sick, vacation, personal or comp time while off. If they had no time off coming, they could use sick days borrowed from the next year.

"Department heads will have the ability to send that employee home or order that employee not to come to work until at least 24 hours after the subsidence of symptoms," Manning said.

The regulation applies solely to H1N1 influenza virus, also called swine flu, he said, and it will be in effect only as long as the Centers for Disease Control has an H1N1 pandemic alert.

"We feel the H1N1 may last as long as seven days. The policy will be temporary in nature."

The policy generated controversy because some supervisors don't believe you can force employees to have their temperature taken or give them sick days they haven't earned.

Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava (R-Moriah) said he doesn't believe the county can give an employee a paid day off they haven't earned.

But Manning said the county has lag pay, in which a worker's first weeks are withheld until they leave county employment, and that would be used as a last resort.

"If they're still working by Jan. 1, there shouldn't be any problem with the Comptroller's Office. If they leave before that, we'd go to lag pay."

Supervisor David Blades (R-Lewis) doesn't support allowing sick workers to take their own temperatures.

"I'm concerned this would create sick-leave abuse within the county."

Manning said the department head or a deputy would make the determination, not the worker.

"People who abuse sick leave are going to do it anyway. I do recognize the concern."

He said a nurse from the County Public Health department would probably take the temperature.

County Manager Daniel Palmer said Public Health has agreed to provide a digital thermometer if a nurse is not available.

"If it's a high temperature, we can ask them voluntarily to go home."

Palmer said they wouldn't force people to get a doctor's excuse to return, because if there is a pandemic, doctors may be overwhelmed by the number of people with the swine flu.

Voting against the emergency authority for department heads were Blades and Scozzafava. It passed, 16-2.

Supervisor Randy Preston (I-Wilmington) said they had people sending sick kids to the town Youth Center.

"We ended up sending them home. They hadn't sent them to school, but they sent them to the Youth Center."

E-mail Lohr McKinstry at: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com