Get rid of sick leave abuse once and for all

As a start, when an employee takes sick leave, it is authorised leave - so unless you can prove that there is specific abuse, there is no point in taking disciplinary action. Remember too, that doctors are no longer required to note the ailment on the certificate and can merely state that the employee is to be booked off sick. The important issue is however, that we know the employee has taken off sick - and as such it is an absence due to ill health.

There is no doubting, that patterns such as Monday/Friday or post-payday etc are indicative of potential abuse. The approach must be to confront the employee on the basis that his/her absence due to ill health is an incapacity issue - the consistent unavailability on a Monday/Friday is a clear indication that the employee is incapacitated and unable to fulfil his/her work duties.

Counselling

This introduces the counselling process to the situation. To undertake this process you must identify the incapacity issue, inform the employee that it is an issue for the business, offer some form of assistance as part of counselling (e.g. referral to a doctor, other medical professional, EAP program etc). This counselling process may repeat itself for a period in an attempt to improve attendance. In most cases there will be an improvement.

The initiation of this process is important, as it starts eliminating the expectation/habit of employees to take sick leave at will. They need to realise that the employer has the right to expect employee to be at the workplace - if you do not intervene, employees see this taking of period sick leave as a right. Sick leave must be taken when an employee is incapacitated due to ill health - this needs to be reinforced.

For more on this subject, click here for the 6-minute video tutorial.

For more information on the UCT Law@Work Club visit us at www.labourlawclub.co.za or SMS "LAWCLUB + [Yourname]" (eg. LAWCLUB Roger) to 31022.