Where an employee is having difficulty attending work as rostered this can have a significant impact on their workplace productivity if allowed to continue. How can and should an employer respond?

Basically, there are two different responses:

• Where the employee is late/absent due to family responsibilities.

• Where the employee is late/absent due to other reasons. 

Firstly – it’s appropriate to set attendance expectations for all employees.

What is the expectation on attending work on time in your business. Is there flexibility that if you start late you can finish late? This will obviously depend on the nature of the work including customer interface and working with or shift changes with other employees and whether they are Award covered.

Another key question here is what has been tolerated in the past – despite what the rules say. Yes – 8am has been the official start time but we’ve often turned a blind eye to employees coming late if you stayed back. 

It becomes very tricky to focus only on one employee doing the wrong think and ignoring others. 

Therefore, be sure to clarify the rules and the expectations to all employees. This can be done in a polite manner without targeting any one employee. 

Secondly, talk to the employee about their absenteeism or late starts. Where such discussions do not change behaviours, it may be necessary to begin a formal counselling process. However, this can be a problem where they still have accrued personal/carers leave and are presenting what appear to be valid medical certificates.

Family Responsibilities

Where such discussions become more complex is where employees arrive late due to family responsibilities. Given the Fair Work Commission trend to legally support /encourage family responsibilities this is an area to tread carefully. 

Terminations based on lateness or absenteeism can be a case of Russian Roulette for employers. This will involve an examination of the reasons for lateness, whether it can be worked around or avoided and whether the employer took reasonable actions in response. 

If you need to talk about absenteeism or late attendance in relation to a particular employee (especially with family responsibilities) please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

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Kind Regards
Michael Schmidt
M 0438 129 728
[email protected]
www.hunteremployeerelations.com.au

 Industrial Relations - Employment Law - Workplace Performance