Dealing with Workplace Absence - A Solicitor's Guide - By: Tim Bishop

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

Each employer should sustain a record of absence for every employee. Keeping this record will help you identify any emerging patterns of absence or alert you to a member of staff suffering from a long-term illness. Each separate sector of your business should also keep this record, this will then enable you to compare employee well being across departments. You must remember however that any employee absence records must be managed in light of the Data Protection Act 1998. Any records of employee absence should then be destroyed after 3 years (of the financial in which it was made) and if you are monitoring any statistics then employees should be made aware.

If you can see an emerging pattern, which is departmental related, then as an employer you should set upon appropriate investigations into the working environment of that department. 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 good procedure to implement is the 'return to work interview'. This face-to-face meeting should be done in private with the relevant line manager for that employee. The interview has several purposes; it establishes exactly why the employee was absent, if they are suffering from a long-term problem and if they are well enough 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 company failing to reach targets or provide a good service due to a lack of consistent staffing

In order to deal with an emerging absence pattern there are some steps you can take to ensure that you investigate the problem scrupulously. Firstly, you should 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 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 area of disability discrimination is particular complex -- don't risk being grounds for a potentially highly expensive disability discrimination claim -- take advice from expert employment solicitors first.

For the first few absences the employee needs to be dealt with amicably. Discuss with the employee the reasons why they have had continued absences or absences which form a pattern. Solutions such as flexible working arrangements, changing work location or job description can offer lower cost results for you and the employee.

If no solution can be found or the problem 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 starting the disciplinary procedures, then you should seek legal advice 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 sure where to begin, contact specialist Employment Solicitors who should be able to provide you with appropriate policies dealing with employee absence at a relatively modest cost.

About the Author

Bonallack & Bishop are a firm of specialist Employment Solicitors. If you want advice on making or defending discrimination claims then contact them today. Senior partner Tim Bishop is responsible for all major strategic decisions, seeing himself as a businessman who owns a law firm. Tim has expanded the firm by 1000% in 12 years and has plans for its continued development.

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