To dock a worker's pay for every penny they have cost my dad?

[Roary1]

I have been left to run my dads building firm for the last month. Last week a member if staff TEXTED in claiming they had been admitted to hospital with laryngitis. I did not believe him and requested a ward discharge summary which he could not give me and then just admitted he had gone to A&E and did not go to the ward as the hospital had no beds. He was told a sore throat is not a valid reason for absence but he stayed off for the week. After returning he went AWOL for a day he claimed he had texted in but I never received it and when I asked him to produce the text off his mobile he claimed he deleted it. His messing around has lost the company £200. Should I dock it from his pay?

No, you can't.

I know you have only been there for a month but there must be policies and procedures which you should follow.

Can you legally do that?

And did he have laryngitis or a sore throat?

No.
I regularly get sore throats and couldn't work.

Is there a policy for reporting absences? Did he follow it?

no.
a sore throat is a valid reason for absence if it's made him feel so shit that he went to A&E.

YABVU

what you must do, though, is insist that they ring or email with absence rather than texting (email because laryngitis you can't speak generally)

the second bit about him going AWOL needs to be investigated properly, but i suggest not you, because quite frankly, you sound like a hard bitch.

I'm sure someone with better HR knowledge than me will be along shortly but are you legally allowed to do that? (I'm not disputing there has been a cost implication for you, just not sure what the employment laws say).

yy you need to find out what the company's policy for absence and sickness is

You probably can't dock the pay (unless you have a contractual agreement to do so), but you might be able to dismiss him for lying which is potentially gross misconduct.

By the way,I don't blame you for being pissed off, just that you need to follow a fair procedure or it will end up costing you more. Does your company have anyone to provide hR advice? Are you a member of a trade association or similar that might offer it?

I know I cannot LEGALLY do it but I could always see if he takes it to tribunal and then settle out of court if he does. He probably won't as I will fire him again not legally but as he has less than one years service there is jack he can do about it

If he's off for that long without contacting you, or providing evidence, then I'd seek legal advice and look at getting rid of him tbh.

You can dock his wages for time missed depending on your sick pay policy, but you still have to pay statutory. (I think it's seven consecutive days can be self-certed, but after that he needs a dr's note), but no, you can't dock for other losses to the company.

What you do need is a clear policy stating your expectations as a company i.e. employees have to call in and speak to someone within a certain time-frame otherwise it's unauthorised and you're within your rights to withhold even statutory pay. It also needs to clearly state whether or not you pay over the statutory limit or not.

If you think the guy is a piss taker, then again you need to implement clear policies about misconduct or reviewing sickness levels.

Don't get into the mind set of taking it personally - you're guaranteed to fuck up and break some employment law somewhere. The company is of personal interest to you, not your employees. They don't see it as screwing you over personally, they're getting one over on an abstract idea of the company.

Dear god you know you can't legally do it and yet you want to do it anyway?

Call your Dad or anyone who knows what they're doing and get them to come back...before you cost your Dad far more in tribunal costs.

You're being very silly.

You are doing this because you dont beleive him? Not that you have any factual evidence to the contrary? YABU. VU.

There are very clear sickness reporting procedures in his contract and it clearly states text messaging is not acceptable. May just fire the guy I HATE liars

At my job we get verbal/written warnings if we go over the company absence level.
Does your company have a policy like this?

And he is crap at his job spends half his time sneaking fag breaks

Ok, I retract my previous post as you already know what is legal and even though you could've implemented a legal way to deal with it (i.e. not accepting a text as notification and using unauthorised absence to lead to misconduct) you just want to be a dick.

Go ahead, it's clear you what you want to do, so just do it and carry on giving employers a bad name for this sort of shit and then wondering why the only people who will work for them take the piss and screw them over.

So I take it you gave him a warning the first time he sent you a text?

Who told him a sore throat wasn't a valid reason for absence? The doctors at A&E or you? A 'sore throat' can knock me for six for up to a week. Yabu to react so angrily with no evidence that he wasn't ill.

Who wouldn't? You sound like a nightmare to work for.

I am definitely docking him for equipment he has destroyed through negligence. This is legal

I am glad you aren't my boss.

Have you conducted a return to work interview?

Conducted a disciplinary investigation?

Not following sickness procedures isn't normally considered gross misconduct, so you can't fire him without risk of recrimination.

Oh ffs are you just going to slowly drip feed all the way through the thread?

Tbh your posts are making you come across like a silly little girl, playing at being a big business woman.

Just call your dad and tell him you can't handle the responsibility.

Can I apply to work for your firm?

It sounds peachy.