JEDDAH, 9 November 2004 — Some government employees obtain sick leave reports from private hospitals or clinics to escape work during Ramadan.
The employees take advantage of the lenient systems in private clinics and hospitals in issuing medical certificates. If you have a friend in any of the health establishments it is even easier to get “sick leave”.
Ahmad Abdulrahman, who works in one of the local clinics, said, “It happens all the time and everywhere. Employees want to avoid going to work during Ramadan. So they come in, have a doctor check them and that’s it. They’ve got sick leave!” Ahmad admits: “Sure I do this all the time especially for my friends and family members.”
Hours are already shorter in Ramadan and even when granted sick leave it is only for 1-3 days. Yet to some work-shirking employees who would rather sleep their fast away than use it, any day is a bonus.
“Staying up all night, and then no coffee or tea during the working day with fasting is trying,” said Fuad Mohammad. “I’m hardly doing any work at all at the office so why not take days off? I’ve a cousin who works in a private hospital, so it’s easy to get sick leave in Ramadan or during other months. Mostly I do this in Ramadan. It’s not my fault; it’s the system’s fault.” An employer in a government sector said: “We should either establish medical clinics or departments from which our employees would have to get sick leave reports or we must make it a condition that sick leave can only be obtained from government hospitals.” He continued: “In an office that usually has more than 10 employees, there have been days during Ramadan when we are just 2 or 3 at work. It isn’t fair.”
Fake sick leave is particularly used by teachers in public schools that are in remote areas or in areas far from their homes.
The head of educational supervision in Taif, Saeed Al-Nafeei told Al-Watan daily: “This phenomenon of fake sick leave may be there among those who have no self-respect or are bereft of any feelings of responsibility whether it’s teachers or other employees.” Al-Nafeei stressed that school principals have strict instructions to take all measures to prevent this “fake sick leave” because it damages the education system and hence harms the students.
The head of School Health Department in Taif’s Educational Administration, Ahmad Al-Fawaz, stated that there are regulations for administrating sick leaves that are issued from the civil services.
According to the regulations, in private hospitals, a specialist doctor can give sick leave from a day to 3 days while a consultant can give sick leave up to 5 days. As for private clinics, their doctors are not allowed to give sick leave for more than a day.
Al-Fawaz also emphasized that any sick leave report must be approved by the employee’s direct superior whether it is school principal for teachers or general managers for employees. If a principal or manager suspects foul play regarding the medical report or sees no grounds for it, he or she has every right to reject it.
What about when the teachers who take sick leave forcefully and do not show up for work? Abu Hamad, a school administrator, said: “It happens many times. They think and know that they can’t be fired because they’re government employees, so they throw the report at our faces. It’s so easy to flout what regulations allow or don’t allow.”
