It’s one of the trickiest situations an employer can face…

When an employee is consistently late to work or abuses their personal leave entitlements.

Often, it seems like there’s not much you can do about it, because as much as you’d love to confront your employees who constantly take sick days – or even sack them for repeated absences – there are a number of laws you must abide by.

As unfair and frustrating as it is, getting it wrong could leave you exposed to an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim – and a whole heap of bother you don’t need.

But you don’t need to just give in!

Instead of having to deal with the productivity-sapping effects of sickies, you can help to stop your employees from abusing their personal leave with just 4 clever moves…

1. Identify the causes for an employee’s absenteeism. If you can find out why an employee is consistently absent, you can deal more effectively with the problem. For example, if an employee is often absent because of issues with childcare, you could offer them the option of more flexible working hours…
2. Implement a thorough record system. For each employee, you should record the date, duration and reason for each case of absenteeism. This way you will have evidence of each absence if you need to refer back to them. These records could win you a dismissal case…
3. Meticulously follow up on each case of absenteeism. You should write a letter recording each case of absenteeism and distribute it to the employee. This will make them aware they are being monitored…
4. Properly inform and regularly update your employees about your standards and policies regarding absenteeism. If you make a change to your absenteeism policy, make sure you let your employees know. Even if you don’t make a change, you should still remind your employees regularly of the standards you have in place. You could do this via a company-wide email or memo.

The Employment Law Practical Handbook will show you exactly what you can do to deal with employees who abuse their personal leave entitlements legally – in simple, practical terms.

But that’s not all the handbook can help you with – here’s just a quick sample of the practical information on personal leave you’ll find in chapter A1 Absenteeism and chapter L10 Personal/Carer’s leave:

• How to challenge an employee who takes frequent “sickies”… more information on Page A1/4
• How to get accurate medical information about an employee – and determine whether their absences are really necessary… more information on Page A1/5
• An 8-step process to help you discipline employees who are consistently late or absent from work… more information on Page A1/7
• What you need to do if an employee has used all their paid personal/carer’s leave entitlements in a year… more information on page L10/10
• 6 things you must do before you allow an employee to cash out paid personal/carer’s leave… more information on page L10/12