Walmart makes pharmacists find coverage for sick days

[RxPal]

Starting a year or two ago, when a pharmacist requests a day off for medical treatment or doctor appointment, Walmart Scheduling Team and the District Manager would require the pharmacist to look for someone else to cover their shift in order for the day off to be approved. It doesn't matter if the medical appointment is within the same week for an cute illness or in a month for a routine follow-up exam when the only available appointment does not fall on the pharmacist's expected days off. I live in California, and this practice does not seem acceptable under the state's labor code:
Law section

The relevant sections are:
246.5.
(a) Upon the oral or written request of an employee, an employer shall provide paid sick days for the following purposes:

(1) Diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee or an employee’s family member.

(b) An employer shall not require as a condition of using paid sick days that the employee search for or find a replacement worker to cover the days during which the employee uses paid sick days.

Not looking for legal advice here. But wondering if other Walmart pharmacists have encounter the same issue and if other people agree or disagree with my interpretation of the labor code.

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[Sine Cura]

You could make the connection between the paid sick leave regulations and the stated practice, which seems to contravene the above statute. If you are going to use the protected PTO for those appointment days then you should not be required to find someone to cover the shift.

Walmart HR also soft as **** so you could push back against this.

If you really want to stir the pot I've heard market directors get fired for less.

 

[Chrish]

Yes you are required to find your coverage. In a case of emergency, it would be different. But yeah, if your child is sick then it would be up to you to arrange for babysitter and come to work or secure your own coverage.

Techs can get away with it but you can’t since pharmacy can’t remain open without you.

 

[Sine Cura]

"Sick" pharmacists in my market do not find their own coverage so this is not required.

Most Walmart pharmacies in California have double coverage on weekdays, even LOLNHM so the other pharmacist can work a 12-13

 

[Chrish]

It’s not “required” on paper but it’s pretty much unwritten rule in my region that pharmacist would find their own coverage unless they have been involved into situations where they can’t physically get up from their bed.

Hell I have seen market directors harassing the managers on their off days to find coverage for their store in an event staff pharmacist calls out.

 

[Sine Cura]

Do I hire pharmacists? No
Do I hire floaters? No
Do I even do the pharmacist schedule? No

That ****'s on the MHWD. LOL

Especially after this year's bull**** calibration I don't give two ****s about doing extra work for WM

 

[RxPal]

You could make the connection between the paid sick leave regulations and the stated practice, which seems to contravene the above statute. If you are going to use the protected PTO for those appointment days then you should not be required to find someone to cover the shift.

Walmart HR also soft as **** so you could push back against this.

If you really want to stir the pot I've heard market directors get fired for less.

My DM otherwise is pretty reasonable so I do not want him to get into trouble for this. I have been with the company for many years, and I never had to find my own coverage for doctor appointment until recently.

I have talked to my store’s HR, but she has no clues about Division 10’s sick PTO policy and cannot advise me on this issue. Do you know the right department that I can bring this issue to? My goal is just to have the Hime Office send a memo to the Scheduling Team acknowledging this California statue and not to give us a hard time when we have to be excused for an doctor appointment. With the company’s no OT policy, it is difficult for the pharmacist to have to call around to find one who can cover the shift while not getting OT.

 

[Sine Cura]

You can contact regional HR (H&W) for clarification (initials DO)

The point is there is no special Div 10 policy on the WIRE and "finding your own coverage" is completely made up/market specific and there is nothing on the WIRE to say "pharmacists are salaried equivalent and should suck it up"

Calling around for coverage can be considered working off the clock if you don't ETA those hrs so you should mention that part too.

 

[mentos]

You need to request a whole day off for a doctor's appointment? How long can a doctor appt possibly take? Why not just go when you're not working? If I were your boss I'd make you find your own coverage for that too.

 

[zelman]

If they require you to try to find coverage, that’s a work task and time you need to be paid for. You could get a ton of OT trying to find someone to work for one hour of your shift on Christmas Eve.

 

[RxPal]

You need to request a whole day off for a doctor's appointment? How long can a doctor appt possibly take? Why not just go when you're not working? If I were your boss I'd make you find your own coverage for that too.

Don’t want to disclose too much specifics about my case on a public forum. But yes, my procedure will make me not functional for an entire day.

 

[BenJammin]

Why is this a big deal? The law requires this. Pharmacy can't operate without a pharmacist. Are we supposed to just guess that they'll close the business for the entire day to accommodate 1 employee?

This is why pharmacy is screwed. The "workers rights" movement on the left is going to replace pharmacists with technicians who severely reduce a pharmacists unique duties.

 

[Sine Cura]

The "law" does not require field management to make the pharmacist find his or her own coverage, nor does it even require a pharmacy to operate at all. In fact, when stuff like that happens, it is not unheard of for the MM him or herself to cover that shift.

In reality pharmacists at one store can work together and move shifts around but that will be difficult to do at the last minute.

 

[RxPal]

Why is this a big deal? The law requires this. Pharmacy can't operate without a pharmacist. Are we supposed to just guess that they'll close the business for the entire day to accommodate 1 employee?

This is why pharmacy is screwed. The "workers rights" movement on the left is going to replace pharmacists with technicians who severely reduce a pharmacists unique duties.

First of all, I am not expecting my pharmacy to close for the entire time just because I need a medical procedure that I don’t enjoy having. In the worst scenario, my partner pharmacist will just do an entire 12-shift. But I’d rather there be a second pharmacist working for better customer service and medication safety…and not to negatively impact our NPS score.

Second, I am supporting the CA statute for the pharmacist not to find his own coverage because it is more efficient for the Scheduling Team to find one. They can very quickly see who is available in the market to cover without hitting OT and coordinate with different markets if necessary. If I am to call around by myself it will be complete guess work. And too often many pharmacists won’t even respond because I am a nobody to them and why should they care about my store. Last time I spent two evenings to text around random pharmacists to finally find one agreeing to help out. Also just because I find a covering pharmacist doesn’t mean he will be accepted. The Scheduling Team has a entire list of ever-changing rules that need to be met in order for another pharmacist to cover your shift.

So why not just follow the law and have the specialized team with the tools and decision power to find the coverage in the first place?

 

[beautifulrobot]

So why not just follow the law and have the specialized team with the tools and decision power to find the coverage in the first place?

Because they don't want to make it easy for you take sick leave.

eta: was unnecessarily snarky. having a rough week, my apologies.

 

[wucool33]

You need to request a whole day off for a doctor's appointment? How long can a doctor appt possibly take? Why not just go when you're not working? If I were your boss I'd make you find your own coverage for that too.

My god, what is wrong with you? God forbid you ever get sick.

 

[mentos]

My god, what is wrong with you? God forbid you ever get sick.

You need to use 8 hours sick time for a 15-30 min doctor appointment? I'm not talking about a long term illness.

 

[footfairy]

You need to use 8 hours sick time for a 15-30 min doctor appointment? I'm not talking about a long term illness.

Plus the drive to and from the office, and the wait time at the office, and the potentially bad timing of the appointment.

I can't believe you are arguing over someone being able to take a sick day from work. What type of slavery agenda are you pushing?

 

[mentos]

Plus the drive to and from the office, and the wait time at the office, and the potentially bad timing of the appointment.

I can't believe you are arguing over someone being able to take a sick day from work. What type of slavery agenda are you pushing?

Slavery huh?? Umm I go to doctor appointments on the days that I don't work. It takes like an hour tops. I've never thought to use an entire sick day for that. So what do you do for the other 7 hours when you're not at the doctor's office?

Do you use a whole sick day for a dental check up too?

 

[owlegrad]

Slavery huh?? Umm I go to doctor appointments on the days that I don't work. It takes like an hour tops. I've never thought to use an entire sick day for that.

Do you use a whole sick day for a dental check up too?

Who are you to judge how someone uses their PTO? It's their PTO, let them use it however they want.

Anyway they already said they are having a procedure that will put them out of commission the rest of the day. So yes, they do need the whole day off. Perhaps it wasn't practical to schedule the procedure on a day off. Maybe they don't get their schedule far enough in advance to make that possible, who knows.

 

[mentos]

Who are you to judge how someone uses their PTO? It's their PTO, let them use it however they want.

Anyway they already said they are having a procedure that will put them out of commission the rest of the day. So yes, they do need the whole day off. Perhaps it wasn't practical to schedule the procedure on a day off. Maybe they don't get their schedule far enough in advance to make that possible, who knows.

Who is he to call me having a slavery agenda? Give me a break, we are paid employees making 6 figures inside a heated/air conditioned building. Slavery is a strong word.

 

[owlegrad]

Who is he to call me having a slavery agenda? Give me a break, we are paid employees making 6 figures inside a heated/air conditioned building. Slavery is a strong word.

What a weird response. Slavery was obviously hyperbolic but that doesn't mean you are right to judge how people use PTO or think that it is ok for their bosses to make them find their own coverage. You can both be wrong.

 

[VA77]

15 min doctor visit? That is way too long. Need to use that doc in a box app and fill your rx at the same time you are checking other rx's. Also, if you are contagious please try to shake hands with as many patients as possible to drive those numbers up!!

 

[owlegrad]

Why is this a big deal? The law requires this. Pharmacy can't operate without a pharmacist. Are we supposed to just guess that they'll close the business for the entire day to accommodate 1 employee?

This is why pharmacy is screwed. The "workers rights" movement on the left is going to replace pharmacists with technicians who severely reduce a pharmacists unique duties.

The law requires the pharmacist to find their own coverage? No, I don't think so. Is anyone suggesting they close the pharmacy? Again, no.

And you think finding your own coverage should be a unique pharmacist duty? I applaud trying to save the profession but if anything being bullied into finding your own coverage is more representative of "why pharmacy is screwed".

Honestly I wonder if I totaled misread your post to the point of getting the opposite of its point.

 

[BenJammin]

The law requires the pharmacist to find their own coverage? No, I don't think so. Is anyone suggesting they close the pharmacy? Again, no.

And you think finding your own coverage should be a unique pharmacist duty? I applaud trying to save the profession but if anything being bullied into finding your own coverage is more representative of "why pharmacy is screwed".

Honestly I wonder if I totaled misread your post to the point of getting the opposite of its point.

Yeah you totally misread my post.

 

[VA77]

To me this is the job of the scheduler

 

[King2440]

You need to request a whole day off for a doctor's appointment? How long can a doctor appt possibly take? Why not just go when you're not working? If I were your boss I'd make you find your own coverage for that too.

It really doesn’t matter. PTO is PTO. It’s like asking if you really need a full 24 hour day off? PTO is part of our benefits.

What happens when you can’t find a RPh as a MHWD? They go in and open the pharmacy, pending they are licensed. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

 

[PikminOC]

Don’t want to disclose too much specifics about my case on a public forum. But yes, my procedure will make me not functional for an entire day.

Colonoscopy?

 

[zelman]

First of all, I am not expecting my pharmacy to close for the entire time just because I need a medical procedure that I don’t enjoy having. In the worst scenario, my partner pharmacist will just do an entire 12-shift. But I’d rather there be a second pharmacist working for better customer service and medication safety…and not to negatively impact our NPS score.

Second, I am supporting the CA statute for the pharmacist not to find his own coverage because it is more efficient for the Scheduling Team to find one. They can very quickly see who is available in the market to cover without hitting OT and coordinate with different markets if necessary. If I am to call around by myself it will be complete guess work. And too often many pharmacists won’t even respond because I am a nobody to them and why should they care about my store. Last time I spent two evenings to text around random pharmacists to finally find one agreeing to help out. Also just because I find a covering pharmacist doesn’t mean he will be accepted. The Scheduling Team has a entire list of ever-changing rules that need to be met in order for another pharmacist to cover your shift.

So why not just follow the law and have the specialized team with the tools and decision power to find the coverage in the first place?

I’ll tell you what. I will cover your shift. I’m licensed in CA. I work for Walmart. Your state is the closest to mine. I could use the OT. I just covered an extra shift in store 5274 today. Tell your boss to book my travel or find someone themselves.

 

[mentos]

It really doesn’t matter. PTO is PTO. It’s like asking if you really need a full 24 hour day off? PTO is part of our benefits.

What happens when you can’t find a RPh as a MHWD? They go in and open the pharmacy, pending they are licensed. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

Wait, are your sick days and vacation days combined into one pool? Maybe it's different per state and we are talking about different things. In MA you get vacation days which is PTO, and separately there are sick days for illness. Sick days are not considered PTO like a vacation day. No one uses a sick day here for a routine doctor's appointment. If anything they'll use 1 hour or two then come into work to finish their scheduled shift. But that is pretty rare, most people only use sick days for calling out sick.

If your PTO is combined then that makes sense to take a whole day off for a 1 hour appointment.

 

[zelman]

Wait, are your sick days and vacation days combined into one pool? Maybe it's different per state and we are talking about different things. In MA you get vacation days which is PTO, and separately there are sick days for illness. Sick days are not considered PTO like a vacation day. No one uses a sick day here for a routine doctor's appointment. If anything they'll use 1 hour or two then come into work to finish their scheduled shift. But that is pretty rare, most people only use sick days for calling out sick.

If your PTO is combined then that makes sense to take a whole day off for a 1 hour appointment.

MA passed a state law that caused many employers to make separate vacation and sick time buckets in ~2015.

 

[mentos]

MA passed a state law that caused many employers to make separate vacation and sick time buckets in ~2015.

Right so no one uses PTO (vacation days) for a doctor's appointment.

 

[zelman]

Right so no one uses PTO (vacation days) for a doctor's appointment.

The point of the law IIRC was to force employers to give sick days to part time employees who were not getting any PTO before?

 

[mentos]

The point of the law IIRC was to force employers to give sick days to part time employees who were not getting any PTO before?

No idea. I remember before there was a separate sick time bank, if you called out sick you would still get paid for the day. But if you had a doctor appointment you would get paid for that hour or two then finish your shift when it was over. If you requested an entire day off for a 1 hr appointment then they probably would have pulled it from your vacation time.

 

[Sine Cura]

California pharmacists (in general) do not get the split balance like all other hourlies do ("protected PTO" and "PTO"). They just get "PTO," so the question is does the kin care/PSL regulations apply to pharmacists.

The reason hourlies in California get a separate bucket is probably to minimize PTO abuse by following the California kin care regulation (50% of accumulated PTO is "protected") to the letter. In the past this sclerotic company gave hourlies DOUBLE the PTO (their expected accrued PTO was copied over 1:1 to the "protected" balance or maybe that was a massive glitch that happened to affect just two of my ****tiest inherited techs) so it would literally take a almost a year to get rid of people for attendance (assuming no fake LOA) because they would just spam their PPTO balance but still have regular PTO as income replacement for LOA.

I can imagine the MWHD being pedantic as CA pharmacists don't have a PPTO balance, but regional HR or HO might come up with a different answer as you can use pharmacist "PTO" for any reason including the PSL reasons listed above.

 

[Dred Pirate]

Why is this a big deal? The law requires this. Pharmacy can't operate without a pharmacist. Are we supposed to just guess that they'll close the business for the entire day to accommodate 1 employee?

This is why pharmacy is screwed. The "workers rights" movement on the left is going to replace pharmacists with technicians who severely reduce a pharmacists unique duties.

prepare for an old man quote "Back in the day" - which was really only 10 years ago - my district when I worked retail would close stores frequnetly due to short staffing - I remember one time when there was a paycheck issue and I was supposed to work - I parked my car outside of the busiest store (I moonlighted so I had a lot more room to leverage) and said I wouldn't open the store until they fixed the issues - I sat there for 45 minutes and finally got a call from the regional VP apologizing and stating the store would pay me out of the register and they would figure out the rest. I miss those days....

 

[Dred Pirate]

MA passed a state law that caused many employers to make separate vacation and sick time buckets in ~2015.

I personally would hate this - I have had two true sick days since I graduate 15 years ago - don't call out sick - get extra vacation time.

 

[mentos]

I personally would hate this - I have had two true sick days since I graduate 15 years ago - don't call out sick - get extra vacation time.

Yup it really sucks. I have like 120 sick hours but no vacation time. The techs all abuse it by calling out "sick" all the time (especially Mondays, Fridays, weekends), but can you really blame them? They're so underpaid. Pharmacists only use 1-2 sick days per year on average.

If vacation + sick time were pooled together, I'd have double the vacation time.

 

[zelman]

Yup it really sucks. I have like 120 sick hours but no vacation time. The techs all abuse it by calling out "sick" all the time (especially Mondays, Fridays, weekends), but can you really blame them? They're so underpaid. Pharmacists only use 1-2 sick days per year on average.

If vacation + sick time were pooled together, I'd have double the vacation time.

When I was getting ready to leave Massachusetts and move to Hawaii my company allowed us to use sick time if we had to “visit a hospital”. I used all of my sick time to fly to Hawaii and interview at hospitals.

 

[footfairy]

Wait, are your sick days and vacation days combined into one pool? Maybe it's different per state and we are talking about different things. In MA you get vacation days which is PTO, and separately there are sick days for illness. Sick days are not considered PTO like a vacation day. No one uses a sick day here for a routine doctor's appointment. If anything they'll use 1 hour or two then come into work to finish their scheduled shift. But that is pretty rare, most people only use sick days for calling out sick.

If your PTO is combined then that makes sense to take a whole day off for a 1 hour appointment.

Okay, I'll take back my baiting comment from earlier in light of that information. I thought you were truly saying someone shouldn't be able to take days off which is an almost universal privilege of all job positions in first world.

 

[APN-59 rph]

You can always tell when you are in a high powered "profession" when you get honked for taking a sick day...Tell me again WHY anyone would take up this job....and 60 bucks an hour is no longer current....

 

[mentos]

You can always tell when you are in a high powered "profession" when you get honked for taking a sick day...Tell me again WHY anyone would take up this job....and 60 bucks an hour is no longer current....

That's cause pharmacists do not generate income, they are overhead. Employers don't mind when engineers take sick time because they work billable hours.

 

[johnpharm01]

Why is this a big deal? The law requires this. Pharmacy can't operate without a pharmacist. Are we supposed to just guess that they'll close the business for the entire day to accommodate 1 employee?

This is why pharmacy is screwed. The "workers rights" movement on the left is going to replace pharmacists with technicians who severely reduce a pharmacists unique duties.

Lmao

So you have weak management that is trying to discourage use of sick time. I would email corporate hr telling that you want the time off for medical treatment and cannot find coverage as your dm wants. Don't even try to find coverage that's a management responsibility. You are covered by fmla.

This isn't unique to pharmacy

I don't know why you care about your dm they apparently don't care about you

 

[Sine Cura]

Yup it really sucks. I have like 120 sick hours but no vacation time. The techs all abuse it by calling out "sick" all the time (especially Mondays, Fridays, weekends), but can you really blame them? They're so underpaid. Pharmacists only use 1-2 sick days per year on average.

If vacation + sick time were pooled together, I'd have double the vacation time.

What would be considered adequately paid though? WM started paying techs $20.10 minimum with PTCB "experienced techs" hitting $22/hr. This is to try to compete with, but still lower than, Kaiser, other health systems' outpatient settings locally. Well, that rate is not "great" for raising a family or whatever in California but it isn't total crap.

Chain pharmacy is garbage and no one wants to do it.

 

[mentos]

What would be considered adequately paid though? WM started paying techs $20.10 minimum with PTCB "experienced techs" hitting $22/hr. This is to try to compete with, but still lower than, Kaiser, other health systems' outpatient settings locally. Well, that rate is not "great" for raising a family or whatever in California but it isn't total crap.

Chain pharmacy is garbage and no one wants to do it.

That's pretty high. Did the techs call out a lot there?

 

[Chrish]

First of all, I am not expecting my pharmacy to close for the entire time just because I need a medical procedure that I don’t enjoy having. In the worst scenario, my partner pharmacist will just do an entire 12-shift. But I’d rather there be a second pharmacist working for better customer service and medication safety…and not to negatively impact our NPS score.

You are a good bullsh!itter, aren't you?

This is actually a good response. Might use it myself.

 

[Sine Cura]

That's pretty high. Did the techs call out a lot there?

In order to call out people have to actually want to apply. LOL. Guess people would rather stay at Safeway for 13/hr or whatever it is they offer these days.

I typed over 500 Rx in the last 3 days out of 840 "QV1".


You can make $17/hr at Chik-Fil-A and not have to deal with retail pharmacy bull****.

 

[RxPal]

You are a good bullsh!itter, aren't you?

This is actually a good response. Might use it myself.

Why the personal attack? Just because others do not behave the way you would in a situation they are “bulli****ter”?

 

[Chrish]

Why the personal attack? Just because others do not behave the way you would in a situation they are “bulli****ter”?

it was a compliment, not an attack.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

You need to request a whole day off for a doctor's appointment? How long can a doctor appt possibly take? Why not just go when you're not working? If I were your boss I'd make you find your own coverage for that too.

Maybe I’m understanding this wrong, or you have the wrong mentality.

It doesn’t matter why someone is taking a sick day or how much the person makes.

In fact employees should be able to take a sick day to see a doctor for basic check ups or mental day. It’s none of my managers businesss to find out why we im using my sick time. If it’s excessive, then the employee can offer me a Leave of absence. We are all professionals and should be able to take sick days off in addition to our PTO if needed. It’s up to our employers to find us coverage if we can’t.

This reminds me of managers complaining and asking HR if they can stop employees from using or limiting bathroom breaks because they think they think their techs were abusing it. One asked if going to the bathroom should count toward their break time.

I can see the manager asking us to look for coverage first and if we can’t find it, escalate it. But to deny sick time because we can’t find coverage is ludicrous.

No wonder why no one else respects our profession.