What is unauthorised absence?
Unauthorised absence is when an employee fails to attend work without a valid reason or permission to be absent. It can also occur when an employee fails to follow the correct reporting procedures for absence and on occasions when an employee reports their absence and a reason is provided but the employer does not believe that the reason given is genuine or contradicts the terms of their employment, for example if employee goes to a personal appointment without permission. Unauthorised absence is also often referred to as an employee being AWOL and an employee doesn’t need to be absent for a full day for it to be classed as unauthorised. If an employee is late and doesn’t notify their employer, then the time between their contracted start time and when they actually arrive for work can be classed as unauthorised.
Why does unauthorised absence happen?
Unauthorised absence happens for lots of different reasons, most of the time it tends to come under the traditional category of someone throwing a sickie but there can be other reasons such as:
- Annual leave being requested and refused but the employee decides to take the day off anyway
- Having no annual leave left but needing or wanting to take a day off
- Travel problems or being unable to afford to get to work
- Reluctance to attend work due to bullying, harassment or a disciplinary issue
- An emergency situation occurs and the employee doesn’t have the time or capacity to follow the correct reporting procedure
In some of the instances above, once an employer is able to speak to the employee and ascertain the reason for them not being present at work then the absence classification will shift from unauthorised to authorised.
What should I do if an employee is AWOL?
The first step should always be to try and make contact with the employee so that you can hold a conversation about why they aren’t at work. It is important therefore that you hold accurate, up to date contact details for all employees. If the employee picks up their phone a conversation can then take place and depending on the reason that the employee has been AWOL next steps can be agreed. If you are unable to make contact then to start with leave a message and in that message ask the employee to get back in touch by a certain time. If that triggers a response, again have a conversation. If it doesn’t then you need to move things along and at that stage it might also be reasonable to try and get in touch with an emergency contact or next of kin particularly if it is out of character for the employee to not turn up. Context is often really important in these scenarios and if you have a genuine concern for an employee it may appropriate to go to their home and see if they are ok, if you take this approach then always make sure that two people go together. This is very much a last resort if you believe the employee is at some sort of risk and not something that you will typically need to do.
If no contact is forthcoming then you start to enter the formal stages of the AWOL process. You should email (or even write to) the employee and request that they get in touch by a set deadline. This may prompt a response and you can then meet with the employee to discuss the situation and decide on a course of action which might include a disciplinary sanction or if no contact is made then you should continue to follow your AWOL procedure which may result in dismissal if the employee fails to respond to your repeated attempts to contact them.
Are employees paid for unauthorised absence?
This will largely be determined by company specific rules and policies around acceptable reasons for absence and what is in an employee’s contract so make sure to always check first.
Do you have any questions about todays blog, need help in becoming legally compliant with contracts/policies or can we support you in taking away any people pains to give you peace of mind?
If you answered yes to any of the above, just give us a call at CUBE HR on 01282 678321, or book in a FREE 30 Minute HR Health Check here FREE HR Health Check and we’ll happily give your business a full HR overview with our personal recommendations absolutely FREE!
Why not also check out our blog on a similar topic Absence Management – 3 Reasons You Should Do It
We also have a YouTube channel with loads of handy videos outlining various HR related scenarios.
