Home Depot has no humanity

I have never had a job that expected me to come into work when sick. Any boss with sense knows that a person who stays home gets well faster and doesn't infect other employees. But not Home Depot.
The local Home Depot, where my husband unfortunately works, allowed an employee to return to work despite the fact she had bronchial pneumonia, and was told by her doctor to stay home for two weeks. She was not asked by management to inform others of her condition, or to wear a mask. Instead, she used my husband's desk phone, worked closely with customers, and handled computer equipment available to all employees.
Two days later my husband was sick, and shortly after that he was diagnosed with pneumonia and bronchitis. He was so sick he cried in his sleep, and couldn't get out of bed for almost a week. He ended up going to the hospital, and because we have no health care (HD's is a joke), we will be paying for it for a long time.
Finally, because he had no sick time and we were hemorrhaging our remaining funds, my husband returned to work. Soon after his arrival he was brought to the office and told management was revoking his holiday pay (from New Year's) because he was sick, even though he was not sick on New Year's.

Rationally, my husband explained that he got sick from BEING at work. You don't contract pneumonia out of thin air, but Home Depot thinks that you do. He was forced to apologize to the woman who had pneumonia first, because she felt the way he looked at her was accusatory. But wait, there's more.

Our local Home Depot HAS NO HEATERS. That's right, a few weeks ago our high temperature was 12 degrees, and it was hardly any warmer inside the store. Each day I watched my husband leave for work wearing layers of sweaters, jackets, scarves, socks, and hats. Employees were not even allowed to mark down heaters off the shelves to keep warm.

And so, my husband sat for weeks shivering in the cold, exposed to a highly infectious illness, and...lo and behold...he came down with it. But Home Depot punished him for it. They punished him by revoking his holiday pay, the punished him by forcing him to apologize for looking angry (he just looks sick to me...), and they punish all employees by offering little or no sick time.

My husband receives four hours of sick pay a month, in exchange for working full-time. What a pathetic "benefit." Sure, those 4 hours he had will help on his measly paycheck, but it would take ten months of saving sick hours to make up for this sudden, Home Depot induced illness and the week of work it caused him to lose. And it isn't like they are going to help with the medical bills.

The heart of this problem is employee benefits. My previous job gave me two days a month, and more if I had a doctor's note. Whatever I needed to be healthy and happy. My husband's co-worker would not have come to work with pneumonia had she any sick time available to her, then no one else would have become ill.

Bob Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot, resigned in 2007 with a $210 million severence package after he tanked the company's stock. Despite this, the company can't reach in it's deep pockets to help out it's real employees. Home Depot is worse than Wal-Mart, and the managers, executives, and CEO's should be ashamed, but that would take humanity.