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Employment Law Update | Sickness absence - a pain in the neck! | Part 1
Managing sickness absence is a topic that we are regularly asked to advise on.
It’s a somewhat broad topic so we have split this guidance into two. This note, part one, deals with short-term sickness absence issues. Part two deals with long-term sickness absence issues and can be access here.
Part 1 - Short-term absences
These are often more frustrating for an organisation given the unpredictable occurrences and the impact such absence has on colleagues who need to cover the work; often without any handover/explanation.
So, how can you reduce / manage such absences? Here are four points for you to consider.
1 Record keeping
The starting point, as ever with an HR process, must be your record keeping. Without this, you will not truly know the extent of an individual’s absence nor the explanation(s) given. Often, when you believe there has been excessive short-term absences, a review of the occurrences and reasons will give you some indication of a pattern; maybe regular absences either side of a weekend or for the same recurring illness.
If the same reason is given, that may help you identify ways in which further instances could be reduced or avoided. In addition, it may begin giving you an insight into whether or not the individual has a disability within the meaning of the Equality Act.
2 Objective analysis
Once you have identified that someone is taking excessive short-term absences, it may be sensible to apply an objective assessment to be able to demonstrate to the individual the impact of their absence(s). Probably the best solution to this is the Bradford Factor. This is commonly used to show to an individual how disruptive short-term absences are to a business. If you decide to apply the Bradford Factor, you ought to apply it all staff to ensure consistency and fairness. This will also give you a good understanding of how all staff fare when it comes to absence.
3 Meeting
Once armed with enough information and evidence, the next important step is to meet with the individual to discuss what you have discovered.
Depending on the culture of your business you may decide to do this as an initial informal chat to highlight to the person that their absence is a concern and needs to improve. Alternatively, you could invoke a formal disciplinary process, most likely, alleging “excessive absence” as the misconduct to be addressed.
On balance, it would be safer to take the informal route first. If this does not result in improved attendance, then you can invoke more formal processes.
4 Formal process
Assuming the informal meeting does not yield an improvement, you can then escalate into a formal disciplinary process.
When you meet with individual there may be some reasonable explanation for the absences, and you need to take these into account when deciding how to proceed. It may be that the absences are because the employee has a disability. It could be that they are linked to their caring responsibilities; whether for a child or other family member. If such issues are raised or if you have concerns about any other type of discrimination you should seek professional advice.
Other concerns could be raised by your employee; whether alleging that there has been bullying or some other detrimental treatment and, again, professional advice should be sought.
If there happens to be any underlying form of disability, then additional considerations need to be taken and we look at some of those in part two of this guidance note.
Ultimately, by following a disciplinary process you may reach the dismissal stage. This is likely to be the point at which an employee’s rights crystallise and the fairness of any dismissal will depend on the process you have followed.
In our experience, one of the biggest issues your business will face when staff take excessive short-term absence is the impact on colleagues who are likely to get frustrated that they have to provide cover and/or that no action is taken against the individual in question who is seen to “get away with it”.
If any of the issues discussed above are a concern to you, or if you would like specific employment law advice, please contact the writer, Matthew Kilgannon, via mk@kilgannonlaw.co.uk
or on 01483 388 901.
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