Sick-day police are after you

Companies are hiring private detectives to go after employees who call in sick and then head off to the golf course. From Bloomberg Business Week:

In 2008, Raybestos Products, a car parts manufacturer in Crawfordsville, Ind., hired an off-duty police officer to track an employee suspected of abusing her paid medical leave. When the employee, Diana Vail, was fired after the cop produced substantial evidence that she was exploiting her benefits, she sued Raybestos. In what became the landmark case for corporate snooping, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed her lawsuit. A panel of judges declared that while surveillance "may not be preferred employer behavior," it wasn't unlawful. According to Susan W. Kline, a partner at the Baker & Daniels law firm in Indianapolis, the case "encouraged [companies] to consider hiring their own private detectives." It also set a precedent, she says, that "reasonable suspicion" is sufficient justification for employer spying.

One recent study found that that 57 percent of U.S. salaried employees take sick days when they're not really sick, a 20 percent jump from statistics gathered between 2006 and 2008. Technology has made it a lot easier to escape detection - one product allows users to select any 10-digit number to appear on the phone of the person they're calling. Some of the stories are amazing:

This summer, Middletown (Pa.) schoolteacher Leslie Herneisey--a three-time Teacher of the Year nominee--was arrested and charged with lying to colleagues about having an inoperable brain tumor so she could take extended sick leave. In 2009 four firefighters in Haverhill, Mass., were suspended after a private investigator, hired by the mayor, caught them attending hockey games and engaging in other blatantly non-sick-day activities.