poker tournaments

This is an example I need to clarify:
6 people playing in a poker tournament with 3 places. 3 of the players are on "sitting out" status since the game began 45 minutes ago. An active player then gets eliminated. What place does this eliminated person get?

If the eliminated player cannot get 3rd place because of the "sitting out" players, then the rules should be changed to eliminate "sitting out" players after a specify time or amount of hands not played.

Understandably, people have to do certain things, restroom, mailman came to deliver something, help the wife with something real quick, etc. But come on, sitting out for an entire game.....BS.
James

If the tourney is really small (like 9 or 10) and a player sits out, they could blind to the finish. But really that is within their rights as player. This is a completely legal tactic, as it is up to any individual player to decide his own best strategy. There is no rule, for obvious reasons, against folding every hand. Therefore, players who choose to sit out are not breaking any rules, and no action will be taken against them.

So that means in my example, that if I get eliminated, I would NOT get a 3rd place finish even if the sitting out players blind out to the end of the game???
THATS NOT A STRATEGY, ITS JUST NOT PLAYING.................