I work in a K-8 school as part of a union and we get a certain number of sick days, personal days, family illness, and bereavement. The sick days can be used to call out pretty much whenever except last year admin started a new rule where if you called out 3 times, every Mon and Fri you call out after that you must provide a doctor's note. This is written in our employee handbook and I think our contract.
Well today (a Friday), admin sends out an email with a reminder that if you call out on a Monday or Friday you have to get a doctor's note AND you have to call the principal directly. This is totally different from what was written before.
I'm guess someone made their job harder by calling out today and this is the retaliation. It feels like straight up intimidation. Obviously, if you're calling them directly, they're going to want to know why you're calling out and that opens the floor for them deciding whether your reason is “good enough”.
I'll be going to the union rep on this but I just hate how petty people in power can be over people having lives.