This employer’s policy is on all fours with the provisions relating to sick leave in the BCEA – an employee only has to produce a medical certificate if they are absent from work for more than two days in order to be paid for the days on which they were ill. This has nothing to do with discipline.
An employee bears the burden of proving that they were incapable of coming to work because they were ill. The probative value of a medical certificate is the same as any other document – the employer can reject the certificate as proof that the employee was ill and the employee would have to adduce other evidence to prove that they were incapable of coming to work due to ill health. The position would be the same if the employee does not produce a medical certificate.
