Some employees at Primary Children's Medical Center say that the sick-leave policy at the hospital is causing nurses who have symptoms of the swine flu to keep working in an environment full of sick kids rather than take time off to get well.
Several employees have become sick with the flu, they say, and some have taken time off. But some employees with symptoms are afraid to say anything because they get only so many paid time-off days a year, and if they are diagnosed with the flu, they must take seven of those days off.
Nurses asked if they could get Workers Compensation pay to leave work for the flu, but Workers Comp policy doesn't allow it.
Many of the nurses live paycheck to paycheck, I am told, so if they have used up their vacation and sick-leave time, they would have to take unpaid leave, which they cannot afford to do.
Primary Children's spokeswoman Bonnie Midget says the seven-day leave requirement for the flu is mandated by the National Centers for Disease Control. And the accrued paid time-off days start at 15 days a year, plus 10 holidays, and increases with years of experience.
The employees, she said, have a responsibility to report their illnesses and take the appropriate measures.
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Now you see it ... » Somebody has an unnatural obsession for dummies dressed as Utah Highway Patrol troopers.
I wrote recently about the UHP-adorned dummy that was placed on top of a billboard on I-15 about 2300 North that was stripped naked by vandals during the dark of night.
The dummy, which fortunately was not anatomically correct, was placed by the UHP over a sign that said, "I See You, Mr. Drunk Driver." But the message gets a little lost when the dummy is naked.
So the UHP redressed the dummy, gluing the uniform on the second time, weighted the dummy down, and bolted it onto the top of the sign.
Now, not only is the dummy's clothes missing, the whole dummy is missing. Vandals apparently climbed the sign with bolt cutters Wednesday night.
"I'm still waiting for the ransom note," said UHP Lt. Lee Perry. "But they should know, we won't deal. The UHP does not negotiate with terrorists or drunk drivers."
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Being a role model? » It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the Salt Lake City Police Department had run one of its crosswalk stings last Tuesday at 2:10 p.m.
You will recall those stings ran for several weeks last year, nabbing hundreds of drivers who did not stop when a decoy cop headed across the street in a crosswalk.
So Tuesday, Thad Van Ry was attempting to cross the street across from the State Capitol in the crosswalk when several cars cut him off by driving through after he stepped off the curb. One of those cars was a Utah Highway Patrol car, license plate UHP583.
