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Unauthorised holiday

April 16, 2019

As a manager, you have probably received a lot of holiday requests for the Christmas period.

People are hoping for some time off to spend with family or the school holidays have started. While most employers will do their best to agree holiday requests from their employees, inevitably there will be occasions when it just isn’t possible to grant annual leave that has been requested.

What should you do if you find yourself in a situation where an employee doesn’t turn up for work on the dates that you refused holiday?

Minimise the risk of an unauthorised absence

Policy

Having a robust policy in place to manage leave requests is essential, as is making sure that it is clearly communicated to each of your employees. Be clear if there are any periods when time off is restricted. Have arrangements in place for sharing out leave at busy or popular times. Make it clear that flights and accommodation for holidays should not be booked before having a holiday request approved.

Refusing a holiday request

You need to ensure that holiday requests are dealt with efficiently, consistently and fairly. Looking after the well-being of your employees’ and their requests, need to be balanced with fulfilling the organisational requirements. Don’t just refuse a request, have a good business reason for the refusal and take the time to contact the employee explaining why their leave hasn’t been granted on this occasion.

When staff don’t turn up to work

If an employee does not arrive to work on the day that they had requested holiday then try not to jump to conclusions, take a step back and keep an open mind. If your employee calls in sick in line with your absence policy, then you might naturally be suspicious, but the timing could be purely coincidental.

If they have complied with the sickness absence reporting procedure and provided self-certification or a fit note (from their doctor, which is required if the absence is for more than a week), it will be difficult for you to do anything.

You could request a medical report from the employee’s GP or an occupational health provider, although this is unlikely to be worthwhile for a short absence. Unless you have compelling evidence that they weren’t sick, then it may be difficult for you to take any disciplinary action.

If they haven’t followed procedure and called in sick, then as with all unauthorised absence, you or their line manager should make every effort to get in touch with them.

If you manage to contact them and they claim to be unfit for work, then you will need to remind them they need to follow the sickness absence reporting procedures and talk them through if they need to provide a self-certificate or doctors fit note to explain their absence.

If they do not claim to be unfit for work and do not have a reasonable explanation for their absence, then stipulate they need to return to work.  Be clear with them that unauthorised absences without a reasonable explanation are a disciplinary matter.

If you are unable to track them down and they do not respond to your messages, you should write them a letter which requests an explanation for their absence, an immediate return to work and confirm that unauthorised absence is a disciplinary matter.

When they return to work

Organise a meeting to discuss the absence with the employee and give them the opportunity to disclose the reason for their absence. If they do not provide a reasonable explanation then you may want to pursue disciplinary proceedings. Ensure that the proper disciplinary procedures are followed.

If you impose a disciplinary sanction against the employee then it needs to be fair and consistent. Look at their employment record, is this behaviour out of character? Or perhaps there are other underlying problems that they need support with. Consider the length of time they took off and the reason, was it just one day for an important family event or was it a two-week holiday? Take these into consideration when deciding on an appropriate level of warning.

If you have the right systems in place, including a clearly communicated absence policy then these situations are more easily dealt with and are less likely to arise. 

 

How can the Dakota Blue Consulting team help?

The team at Dakota Blue Consulting is made up of experienced HR Directors, we work with a diverse range of businesses to help them get the best from their people.  From Project HR Support through to Recruitment Support.  Call us on 01233 622651 or email us on hello@dakotablueconsulting.com to find out how we can help you and your business. 

 

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