We have an employee who has 2 disabled children both under the age of 18. In the past we have been very accomodating as per our company policy in allowing him leave at the last minute to take his daughter to hospital or look after her when she is ill. In the past 11 months this has amounted to 41 days. We have also discussed flexible working with the employee at his request to ease the strain, he has however decided not to pursue this avenue. The current situation now is that he is turning up for 1 hour of a shift and then leaving due to reasons related to his daughter. This tends to be happeing on days prior to days off or annual leave. Is it fair to discipline the employee due to a believe that he is playing the system? The phrase in our policy is “we need to be seen as acting fair and reasonably.”
valerie locke