Attendance Policy

[nostaples]

My workplace has an attendance policy which only allows you to be off on four separate occasions over 12 months. Unfortunately I have triggered this this year and am now being monitored. This means I am only allowed 3 days off over the next 12 months. If I exceed this I will be on stage 2 monitoring which begins a path to formal warnings and eventual dismissal. Can they do this?

Absolutely.

I would say that they should show compassion to any underlying conditions etc. I’d say if the staff that go through the management process fewer than 10% are dismissed - adjustments are usually made by both sides to ensure attendance is not a problem which resolves the issue.

There are always those that take the piss though.

Standard triggers tend to be:

3 absences in 6 months
4 absences in 12 months
2 or more absences totalling more than 14 days.
Any absence of more than 28 days.

Yes they can do this.

Yes but each absence should be assessed on its own merits. 3 single days always on a Monday with vague 'cold symptoms' will be viewed less favourably than 2 weeks off with a Drs note for shingles for example.

This sounds like NHS policy maybe? They can absolutely do this but it will rarely actually lead to dismissal. If you exceed the trigger level again there'll be an expectation that you work together to sort out whatever health problems is causing high absence level (e.g. occy health review). If there's an underlying problem you should discuss it with your manager so it can be taken into consideration and any necessary adjustments made.

Yes they can, although I personally feel that such ‘rules’ are arbitrary and a bit of common sense and flexibility should be applied! But employers need to have a’line in the sand’ so that they can deal with those that take the piss.

They can. I'm on a 'second stage' monitoring with 10 days sick in 6 months as the trigger. I have a disability covered under the Equality Act and mental health issues but it's made no difference.

Yes, it’s a pretty standard approach. IME to breach 4 times in 12 months, one of the following is true

• you have an underlying health condition they need to know about and possibly support you with
• you have been very unlucky and therefore statistically will not continue to be unlucky in future
• you are avoiding work for some reason
• you are making poor choices not to attend work when you probably have been well enough

Have you been to occ health? Have you requested any adjustments?

Yes, of course they can if it’s in their sickness policy. Check with your union though.

Just because you trigger Stage 1 doesn’t mean you progress baby further.

I ended up on a Stage 1 warning after a brain tumour but that was the end of it,

Yes they can apply whatever sickness monitoring policy they want to what you suggest sounds fairly standard.
They will usually look at the reasons for the sickness as well rather than just the time off to see if there are reasonable adjustments that could be made to reduce the sickness and to assess the likelihood of it it recurring.
4 episodes of sickness in 12 months is quite a lot and it is unusual to be that unlucky with sickness unless there are other underlying health issues.

How long have you worked for this employer for?

My workplace is 3 periods of sickness in 12 months but doesn't mean you'll end up being fired if the illnesses are genuine. I think it's a good idea as it's number of times/periods off, not number of days so it discourages people from coming back quick, spreading their germs and needing to go off sick again, you might as well stay off slightly longer until you're actually fit.

My workplace is 3 periods of sickness in 12 months but doesn't mean you'll end up being fired if the illnesses are genuine
If someone was off work with genuine sickness three times in one year and there was no underlining disability or condition then I would be very concerned about their health.

@OldPosterNewUsername - exactly, and more easily done if everyone brings their cold and vomity bugs to work so anything that discourages that seems good to me rather than something to be feared. And if someone is getting ill often management should have a process to meet with them to check if there's anything that can be done or any help given, make sense to me.

Yes they can do this. But if you experience a period of better health, the monitoring periods will expire, and it won't matter. Have you got an underlying health condition?