Employment Law

It is your duty as an employer to keep a close eye on your employee’s absences from work. This is for two main factors firstly, to guarantee that your organization does not suffer due to staff absence and secondly, to ensure that your staff are well, healthy and happy.

Every employer really should sustain a record of absence for each and every employee. Keeping this record will assist you identify any emerging patterns of absence or alert you to a member of staff suffering from a lengthy-term illness. Each separate sector of your business ought to also keep this record, this will then enable you to compare employee well being across departments. Employee absences records really should usually be managed in light of the Date Protection Act (1998). Any records must be destroyed after 3 years (of the financial year developed) and employees should be kept informed if any monitoring is taking location.

If a pattern of absence appears which is inter-departmental, i.e. one department has a considerably higher level of absence, then you ought to take the appropriate steps into looking at that departments working environment. Not only this but you should look to your senior members of staff to report on issues within the department, which could be causing the higher levels of absence.

Another great procedure to implement is the ‘return to work interview’. This face-to-face interview really should be conducted in private with the employee’s line manager. The interview has several purposes it establishes precisely why the employee was absent, if they are suffering from a long-term dilemma and if they are well sufficient to return to work. It can also provide the employee with a private outlet to complain about their working environment and/or fellow staff members, which incidentally could be causing their absence.

If you do not deal with employee absence at an early stage you run the risk of the following occurring:

- Low staff esteem due to increased workloads in covering the absent colleague

- Agency staff bills being extraordinarily high

- The business failing to reach targets or supply a good service due to a lack of consistent staffing

In order to deal with an emerging absence pattern there are some actions you can take to make sure that you investigate the problem scrupulously. Firstly, you need to compare the employee’s absence over your last 3 years of records to establish any recurring pattern. Secondly, compare the employee’s absence record to that of the other employee’s within the exact same department, this may identify a work related issue. Lastly, check that the employee does not have an illness which fits the criteria of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The region of disability discrimination is specific complex — do not risk being grounds for a potentially highly costly disability discrimination claim — take guidance from expert employment solicitors initial.

In the 1st instance employee absence ought to be dealt with amicably. Talk to the employee and try to discover the reason for a continued or patterned absence record. Solutions such as flexible working arrangements, changing work location or job description can provide lower price outcomes for you and the employee.

If no remedy can be discovered or the issue is merely unauthorised absence, then you have the option of disciplining the employee under capability and/or conduct. An approved disciplinary handling procedure should be used at this time.

If you are in any doubt as to the reason for the employee’s absence or the grounds upon which you are beginning the disciplinary procedures, then you ought to seek legal guidance immediately from specialist employment solicitors. A dismissal based upon an employee’s absence has to be legal and if it is not you could face claims of an unfair dismissal via the Employment Tribunal.

The most basic step is to develop clear and comprehenstive policies which deal with employee absence. If you don’t and you are not certain where to start, contact specialist Employment Solicitors who really should be able to supply you with suitable policies dealing with employee absence at a comparatively modest cost.