To much time away from work.

System

We have an employee that has missed alot of time from work. My concern is he usually has a drs. note when he returns. We have given this employee a oral and written warning. The last straw - The employee called in sick on a Thurs. and then friday morning came in and said he was still sick, he did not have a dr's. note so we suspended him for another unexcused absence. The following week he was absent all week, two of the days he called in he said he would be in to give us a dr's note or explain what was happening. He did not show up those days. On the following monday he did not show up also called in again. On tuesday when he returned to work the employee brought in a dr's note for the week he was out, (plus after we suspended him he got a note for thurs. and Friday), but did not have documentation for the monday. When he called in on monday he said he would be in around morning break time and never showed up. This employee has never requested FMLA - even though he is not eligible for leave because he has only been employed for 9 months. In the nine months that he has been employed he has been missing 25 days. We would really like to terminate this employee. Can you think of any legal issue we would need to be concerned with if we let this employee go. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hatchetman

Without knowing if he has indicated any ongoing medical problem, I assume you've discounted possible ADA implications.

I also assume you've put him on notice about the problmes and consequences of his poor attendance (the fact it could get him fired).

You may want to document what occurs on the job when he is absent -- what happens to his work, e.g., does it get done? Does some one else have to stop his or her work to do the emplyee's job? What happens to production, to service to clients, etc? If you can demonstrate an impact ot operations, that wil go a long way in showing to any partiuclar reviewing authoirty the properity of discharge (assuming you have a practice of discharge and aren't illegally discriminating).

mets

I would issue the employee a final warning that any future absenteeism will result in his/her termination from employment. I would hand deliver this to the employee in the presence of the immediate supervisor and clearly state that the absenteeism has resulted in work production problems, morale issues,etc. Explain that the frequency of absences is the issue, not the legitimacy.
I would prepare the exit package right away!
Good luck!

Balloonman

Myself, I would fire him. 25 days in 9 months, almost 3 days a month! As long as the policy does not call for any more steps, I would bring him in and give the discussion about the impact on others etc, then let him go. The other option is wait for him not to show up, consider it job abandonment, that might save you paying unemployment.

As long as you have no other attendance problems that you are not addressing, fire him.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Spoden,

Does your state have its own FMLA regulations? Here in Oregon, we have the Oregon Family Medical Leave act which only requires employees to be on the job for 180 days to be eligible. So, in Oregon, your employee would be eligible for 12 weeks of leave (assuming your organization has 25 or more employees).

You might want to check that out.

Paul

Ruskanen

Is the employee salary or hourly? If hourly, do you have an attendance policy in place? It seems this employee would exceed even the most generous attendance policy. Also, you might want to consider some "No call, No show" language in your attendance policy. At our company if an employee does not call in or come to work two days in a row, they are automatically terminated, unless they can prove they were unconscious the whole time.

Also, I find it hard to believe that this emloyee can meet performance expectations if they are absent so often. To avoid attendance issues (esp. if you don't have a clear policy in place or if the employee is salary) you could start examining their performance and write them up for expectations they are not meeting.