I am new to the company at which I work.
An employee lives several miles form work and has a poor attendance record. He often sites car trouble as a reason for not getting to work.
His absence has never been tackled formally and we don’t currently have an absence policy – this is something I am putting in place.
Following a recent absence of several days his managers told him that he had to submit an action plan detailing how he gets to work if his car breaks down. Public transport is slow and expensive (approx 3-4 hrs each way and £30 per day) and a taxi would be an astronomical price.
I have just found out that this has been requested and feel quite uncomfortable with it. Is it reasonable to ask for one and if so how should it be handled? I feel at the very least that given the time and expense we allow him to work short hours in such a circumstance to reflect the effort in getting to work or that we reimburse some of the expense.
The individual already has a long standing difficult relationship with his manager (which I’m trying to resolve). For this and the obvious reasons I want to get the balance between managing a non ideal employee firmly whilst ensuring he is treated fairly.
He is a junior member of staff with lengthy service and not paid a high salary.
Shirley Miller