In Short
- High absenteeism can affect workplace productivity, morale, and business operations.
- Common causes include workplace culture issues, stress, and personal problems.
- Managing absenteeism involves clear policies, effective communication, and support for employees.
Tips for Businesses
Develop clear policies to manage absenteeism and ensure employees understand them. Monitor patterns to identify and address underlying causes, such as workplace stress. Maintain open communication with employees and offer support, such as flexible work options, to improve attendance and morale.
As an employer, managing an employee taking significant time off from work can be challenging. Employees often have sensitive or personal reasons for absenteeism, including medical issues or carer’s responsibilities. While dismissing an employee for excessive absenteeism can be tempting, you should be aware that the Australian jurisdiction has strong protections for employees, including a specific prohibition against dismissal because the employee is temporarily absent from work due to an illness or injury. This article outlines the legal protections afforded to employees taking time away from work and how you can deal with high employee absenteeism rates.
Employee Protections
In Australia, permanent full-time employees are entitled to 10 days of paid personal leave per year, which accrues progressively throughout the year and accumulates over time. If an employee cannot attend work due to an illness or injury, you must continue to pay them over this period. For part-time employees, paid personal leave is calculated on a pro-rata basis. If you have casual employees, they will not be entitled to paid sick leave.
Usually, your employee’s employment contract will state what type of employee they are and their weekly working hours if they are permanent.
Employees may also use their personal leave balance for carer’s responsibilities when a member of their immediate family or household is suffering from an injury or illness or is affected by an unexpected emergency and requires the employee’s care or support. Once they have exhausted this leave, an employee may request to use their annual leave if they are permanent. Alternatively, all employees, including casuals, can utilise unpaid carer’s leave for two days for each instance where they have carer’s responsibilities.
You are also restricted from acting against your employees for certain periods of absence. The Fair Work Act (2009) (Cth) (Act) generally prohibits employers from taking adverse action against employees for any protected attribute, including any mental or physical illness the employee suffers from.
Significantly, only periods of unpaid leave will contribute to the calculation of the three-month threshold; therefore, any paid leave period will not be relevant.
Adverse action includes but is not limited to:
- cutting an employee’s shifts or days of work;
- demoting an employee to a lower position;
- discriminating between employees;
- not hiring someone; or
- dismissal.
Practical Tips for Dealing With Absenteeism
Due to the various protections that your employees hold, it is important that you are rational and pragmatic when dealing with absenteeism. Below are some measures you may consider implementing.
1. Create Workplace Policies
Your workplace handbook or policies should clearly outline the procedures you expect your employees to follow when taking leave. This can include providing evidence or a reasonable explanation for taking personal leave.
You may request that your employees provide the following:
- notice of their absence as soon as possible before their working hours;
- a medical certificate; or
- a statutory declaration, which will be primarily relevant in instances where the employee is taking carer’s leave.
Your policy should also outline the actions you will take in the event of non-compliance. For example, you may hold a disciplinary meeting with the employee to remind them of their obligations and, in the event of consistent non-compliance, issue a formal written warning letter.
Importantly, taking personal leave does not warrant disciplinary action. Instead, the company will respond because the employee fails to comply with the company’s policies regarding the manner in which personal leave must be taken.
As an employer, understand your essential employment obligations with this free LegalVision factsheet.
2. Communicate With Absent Employees
As an employer, it is crucial that you support your employees’ health and well-being. Therefore, if you notice that an employee is on extended sick leave or often takes days off, you should inquire whether they need additional support to complete their work.
While employees usually take sick leave due to physical illnesses or injuries, your workplace may also be stressful, causing them to take time off. By reaching out to your employee, you may discover work health and safety hazards that are triggering absenteeism, such as:
- bullying and harassment by managers or colleagues;
- a physically unsafe working environment; or
- high workloads causing stress and burnout.
3. Implement Changes
If you identify any workplace issues causing your employee to take sick leave, such as stress in the work environment, you should take measures to mitigate the issue. This can include:
- holding meetings to allocate a more even distribution of work;
- creating a more supportive work environment; or
- offering your employees the option of reasonable adjustments, such as flexible working arrangements.
Under work health and safety legislation, you have an obligation to provide a safe workplace. Therefore, you should ensure that you take preventative measures to limit the spread of hazards.
4. Dismissal
Dismissal should be a final option that you only consider once an employee has been on unpaid sick leave for at least three months, as specified in the legislation.
Once the threshold has passed, you may only consider dismissing your employee if:
- they have not made a worker’s compensation claim about the injury or illness;
- The employee has attended an independent medical assessment, and the corresponding medical certificate states that the employee cannot meet the inherent requirements of the role and no reasonable adjustments can be made to the role to allow their return; and
- where the employee is eligible to make an unfair dismissal claim, you have implemented a show cause process to allow the employee to show cause as to why the company should not proceed with termination.
Where the employee has made a workers’ compensation claim, an increased threshold of time needs to pass prior to termination. The relevant threshold is dependent on each state’s legislation.
Therefore, given the high level of regulation in this area, you should consult with an employment lawyer before you proceed with a dismissal. If you harshly or unlawfully dismiss an employee, they may bring a general protections claim or unfair dimissal claim against the company.
Continue reading this article below the formKey Takeaways
Managing high absenteeism in the workplace requires a balanced approach that considers employees’ rights. As an employer, it can damage your business’ productivity and workflow if employees continually take absences. To deal with absenteeism, you should:
- create clear policies for leave;
- maintain open communication with employees; and
- address any workplace issues contributing to absenteeism.
Additionally, you should only consider dismissal after the employee has been absent from work for longer than the three-month threshold and has attended a medical assessment that confirms they cannot meet the inherent requirements of the role and no reasonable adjustments can be made. There are numerous legal protections for your employees suffering from an illness or injury; therefore, you should consult with a qualified employment lawyer before pursuing dismissal.
If you need help dismissing an employee, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
The main reasons for workplace absence include job strain, stress, and physical illness. However, there are numerous other factors which can affect staff.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that public sector workers tend to take around eight to nine days of sickness absence per year.
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