Posties say large corporation prying into employees' health
By Mike Howell-Staff writer
From the Vancouver Courier

The union representing Vancouver postal workers says Canada Post is playing "Big Brother" by hiring a corporate medical company to phone ill employees at home to ensure they're actually sick.

Ken Mooney, president of the Vancouver local of Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said the company's new program is an invasion of privacy and a violation of contractual rights.

"We've been informed that if someone should call in sick, they may expect a call from a nurse asking certain questions about their physical status, and that of course brings into question certain concerns we have with privacy rights," Mooney told the Courier. "It's very George Orwell, you know."

In a recent union newsletter, the union says Medisys Health Group will be monitoring absences, developing plans for a return to work, acquiring medical information and maintaining medical files on workers.

Medisys is a large, international medical services contractor.

The union will be advising the 3,000 employees who work in Greater Vancouver not to respond to questions from Medisys, Mooney said. Supervisors already ask a series of questions when an employee phones in sick, he added.

Bob Taylor, spokesman for Canada Post, said the aim of the program is not for Medisys to work with employees who occasionally phone in sick. An employee must be off sick for at least five days in a row before Medisys would start calling, he said.

"This is for long-term," he said. "This isn't for the guy phoning in sick today or tomorrow. The intent is to be very positive for the employee and be very supportive. It's not like a bookkeeper going out to find out if somebody is away and sick and keeping track, and all that stuff."

Taylor said Medisys has worked for Canada Post in the past, and consulted him when he was off for a couple of months in 2003 after a major heart attack.

"She was a nurse [from Medisys], and I met with her a couple of times when I got back, and she was right there in case I needed somebody with a medical background to ask for advice or anything. So it's nice to have those people handy."

Although Mooney doesn't know of any employees who called in sick for a day or two and who were contacted by Medisys, he doesn't buy Canada Post's line the calls won't occur.

"It will be in effect, if it isn't now."

Mooney said the union has been involved in several arbitration cases over the years concerning an employee's illness. In December the union took a case to arbitration with Canada Post that involved an employee injured in a car accident who wanted to return to work.

Mooney said a medical consultant from Medisys had rejected approvals from the employee's doctor and specialist to return to work, even though the employee wanted to resume working.

"They lost badly because the arbitrator wouldn't accept that a person who never meets an individual is in the best position to make determinations about their medical status. They never do meet, they just make judgments."

In the same union newsletter alerting employees about the new Medisys program, the union also includes an unrelated announcement about a human rights course that starts next week. "That's purely a coincidence," Mooney said.

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