1) Contact with manager
If a colleague doesn’t come into work and hasn’t followed the absence reporting or sickness certification procedure, their manager will try to call them to find out what’s happening – and will leave a voicemail message if there’s no answer. Managers should record the date and time of each attempt to contact the colleague – the Unauthorised Absence Recording Form (below) can be used to record this information.
If the manager can’t get hold of the colleague, they may call their emergency contact to find out if they’re okay – particularly if the colleague is under 18 or if their manager has concerns about their welfare.
If the manager speaks to the colleague, they’ll ask them why they haven’t been able to attend work or follow the absence reporting or certification procedure. If the employee has a good reason for this - for example, because they’ve been involved in an accident or there’s been a family emergency - managers should discuss and agree with them when they’ll be back in work. They may agree a period of Emergency Leave or Compassionate Leave or for the colleague to take holiday to give them time to deal with things.
But if the colleague doesn’t have a good reason for their unauthorised absence, or if the manager still can’t contact them, they should invite the colleague to a meeting to talk about this further and then decide whether to proceed to a disciplinary meeting. We’ll also do this if the colleague shows up for work before their manager has been able to contact them.