Claiming sickness, an employee mysteriously disappears. Unable to contact him for weeks, Fiona Fritz is just about to hit him with a disciplinary when he gets rushed to hospital with a serious infection. As she can’t really chase after the operating table waving a grievance notice at him, what’s the next step? Find out What Happened Next when the ailing worker finally dragged himself from his sick bed. Would his return make his co-workers sick with anger? By Sarah Fletcher
Sickness and disciplinary
“I have an employee who reported sick, but was then not heard from for ten days. All attempts to contact him failed so I wrote a letter asking him to contact me as soon as possible, and to produce a certificate so that he could be paid sick pay. He still did not contact me but arrived at his place of work with a certificate dated after my letter, saying he could return to work.
“I should say that he already has a written warning on file for failure to attend work at New Year. He did not contact us then either. So, instead of returning to work he was invited to attend a disciplinary hearing the following week.
“However, the day before the hearing he was admitted to hospital with a serious infection which required an operation. This illness is obviously genuine and the most important thing at the moment is his recovery. I have told him this on the phone. But the issue will not go away and is still quite serious as his line manager has stressed his return will have a negative effect on the rest of the team.”
Fiona Fritz
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What happened next?
The employee was actually off sick for another four weeks, so we put the disciplinary to one side and managed the sickness as we would for anyone else. As soon as he was fit to return to work we restarted the disciplinary process.
We waited no time at all – as soon as he was declared fit we rearranged the interview – he did not even get back into the workplace.
How did the employee react? He was actually ok – he said that he wanted the matter resolved.
His colleagues reacted much the same really – but they were nervous as to the outcome. They wanted to be sure that he had not ‘got away with it’.
Staff had actually said they did not want to work with him any more, but agreed to give it another try when it was realised that he would be on a final written warning. Management felt we had arrived at the best decision under the circumstances (we would really like to have gone further and dismissed him, but, as I explained before, the issue was not so straight forward any more).
He is still employed – he has been left in doubt as to what will happen should there be any more problems. We will have to wait and see how he does!
Which sources of information did you find the most useful?
HR Zone comments actually confirmed that my instinct was correct, and that the course of action we wished to take was correct- I often refer to HR Zone for that very reason. You have a feeling for what is right, but want someone else to say it as well!
Would you have done anything differently with hindsight?
Probably not – we had little choice, really.
Was the outcome satisfactory for all parties?
Not really – if the disciplinary had been carried out on the original date the issue would have been clear cut and the result beyond doubt. Unfortunately the passage of time has clouded the issue, and people’s memories have faded enough to cast doubt on the conclusion.
How to deal with this grievance – advice offered by members:
- Sandra Beale urges vigilant monitoring of the situation – and written records to prove it.
Other articles in the What Happened Next series
- Drug Dealing: Putting a lid on employee pill popping
- Dealing with smelly staff: How to handle an employee that smells like a rubbish dump
- Should a grievance be lodged? Dealing with a bullying boss
- Stubbing out smoking: How can you make employees kick the habit?
- Getting management buy-in: How to persuade senior management that your strategies work
- Anyone been to clown school?: Fresh ways to motivate staff
Related Any Answers posts:
- Dubious sickies: Shop those skivers!
- Firing due to long term sickness: Can you be fired because you’re too ill to work?
- Holiday whilst on sick leave: Suffering from depression, can I go on holiday?
- M.E.: Managing M.E. related absence
Anything to add? Please post your comments below.
