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HRMG3030: Attendance and Disability Management Research Project

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Table of Contents

Attendance..................................................................................................................................3

Definitions..................................................................................................................................3

Culpable versus non-Culpable...................................................................................................4

Culpable Absence...................................................................................................................4

Examples of Culpable Absenteeism.......................................................................................5

Culpable Absenteeism Management at UDST......................................................................5

Non-Culpable Absence..........................................................................................................6

Examples of Non-Culpable Absenteeism..............................................................................7

Non-Culpable Absenteeism Management at UDST..............................................................8

Sickness Absence and Annual Leave.........................................................................................8

Evaluation..................................................................................................................................9

References..................................................................................................................................9
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Attendance

Regular and Timely attendance is an expectation of excellent performance for all employees

of UDST (University of Doha for Science and Technology). University expects all its

employees to come to work on time and work according to schedule approved by their

supervisor or administrator and leaving job duties on scheduled time for performing essential

functions of their job in an effective manner.

Definitions

Absenteeism: It refers to frequent absence of an employees from job responsibilities

including not coming to work and frequently taking sick leaves without submitting any notes

from doctor (Randolph Community College, 2013).

Tardiness: Employees coming in later or taking longer breaks during working hours as well

as leaving early from work without a reasonable explanation (Secord, 2003).

Pattern: it is defined as a pattern of repeated absence from work in accordance with some

particular or significant dates. Such as after a pay day, before or after scheduled day off.

Unauthorized absenteeism: For employees of UDST, unauthorized absenteeism is that are

within the control of employees and might require a disciplinary action or warrant from

employer.

Reporting Sickness:

An employee of UDST should follow the agreed procedure regarding notifying and reporting

sickness and contact during sickness to immediate supervisor within university.

Nature of illness and measures undertaking should be mentioned.

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Provide information regarding length of absences or expected recovery time and when you

will contact supervisor again.

Important tasks that need to be attended should be informed.

Sickness relevant documentation should be submitted for both short-term and long-term

absence.

Short term absence will be defined as the 20 days of absence within 12 month or 5 episodes

of absence.

Long term absence will be defined as the 20 days of continuous absenteeism (Bangor UK

University, 2009).

Culpable versus Non-Culpable

Culpable Absenteesim

Unauthorized Absence of an employee from work is defined as Culpable Absence (Secord,

2003)

Culpable Absenteeism include:

 An absence of an employee from work at UDST without a reasonable cause such as

transportation unavailability or Snoozing Alarm.

 Late Arrival to work without being involved in any real emergency

 Being absent from work after the rejection of leave approval.

 Failure to call in and inform immediate supervisor regarding date and reason of being

Absent.

 Failure to provide required documentation as proof of emergency that is stated as

reason for being absent (Secord, 2003).

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 No permission taken for leaving work early.

 Misusing Sick Leave for other jobs or personal commitments.

 Employees’ Laying about reason of being absent

 Failure of provide medical note or a certificate from doctor when as proof of reason

stated for Sick Leave.

 Failure to provide an explanation for a Patterned absence (Randolph Community

College, 2013).

Examples of Culpable Absenteeism

An employee of UDST failed to call in as per Employment Contract and SOPs provided by

university, when absent from work. Calling and not indicating any reason for being absent

and simply informing supervisor that he/she will not come to work, not taking an authorized

approval for vacation, and leaving a message stating vacation as being reason of absenteeism

from university.

Patterned Absence of an employee without an explanation such as an employee being absent

from UDST every Sunday and failed to provide a valid explanation for this.

Culpable Absenteeism Management at UDST

Unauthorised Absence is defined as the misrepresentation of reasons of absence which will

be result in the use of Disciplinary Procedure.

Culpable Absenteeism at UDST is managed on individual level and specific disciplinary

action are applied for each case and for purpose of doing so Progressive Discipline is

designed with 5 steps including (USF, 2018).

1. Counselling using Interview

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Employees attendance is recorded and reviewed for last 12 months and a return-to-work

interview will be arranged if any short-term or long terms unauthorized absence is reported in

the time. The reason and explanation for absenteeism will be asked and an assessment of any

trainings required or arrangement of Occupational Health Practitioner with reasonable

adjustment to absenteeism will be guaranteed (USF, 2018).

2. Formal Review 1 using Verbal Warning

Employee attendance is recorded for 6 months and an employee’s repeating short-term or

long-term unauthorized absence that has previously gone through counselling with be given a

Verbal warning to provide reasonable explanation for absence and rectify behaviour.

3. Formal Review II using written warning

An employee being gone through step 1 and step 2 being involved in unauthorized-mail

absenteeism will be immediately given a Written Warning through e-email to contact and

inform his/ her immediate supervisor within 24 hours. The employee have to face pay

dedication of 15 days failure to respond to written warning within given time frame

framework

4. Temporary Suspension of Employee from work

An employee’ failure to respond to formal review II with in 3 days or being involved in

unauthorized absenteeism again within 2 weeks of previous warning will be suspended from

work for 3 months without pay.

5. Termination of Employment

An employee being involved in unauthorized absenteeism after going through previous 3

disciplinary action within last 36 months will be terminated from employment with a 15

days’ notice
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Non-Culpable Absence

Absence that are non-blameworthy are referred as non-culpable or Innocent absenteeism

Non-Culpable Absenteeism for employee of UDST is defined as the failure to come to work

in circumstance that is beyond the control of employee. These includes the situation when

employee do have genuine documents of proof for being absent.

Non-Culpable Absenteeism includes

 With or without pay Excessive Sick leave in the presence of medical Certification

 Appointments during working hours (with proof), however there are excessive

appointments.

 Dealing with family Problems with excessive absence from work.

 Even though credit is used to cover absenteeism, Unplanned absences are made by

employee of UDST

 Pattern Absenteeism that has legitimate circumstance is included Non-Culpable

Absenteeism.

Examples of Non-Culpable Absenteeism

An employee taking excessive family days off in last 3 months and when being interrogated,

supervisor came to know about his father who is seriously ill and have been in and out of

hospital frequently.

Examples of Non-culpable pattern absenteeism includes an employee is being absent every

Wednesday for 2 hours, however he/ she does have a legitimate circumstance and explained

that he/she had a Physical therapy session on every Wednesday for the arm injury happened 7

weeks ago at work.

Or an employee having Chemotherapy Treatment scheduled every 15 days.

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Non-Culpable Absenteeism Management at UDST

Non-Culpable Absenteeism at UDST is managed through Attendance Management

Programs.

Employees at UDST will enter Absenteeism Management at UDST through.

1. Excessive Absenteeism

2. Non-Culpable Pattern Absenteeism

 Any UDST employee have more than 7 days per quarter of absenteeism will be enter

in this program

 The program will consist of 5 stages where initially review will be done after 6

months and next 4 reviews will be done within 3 months (Vanderbilt University,

2015).

 A Signiant improvement in Attendance rate will move an employee backward, while

an increase in absenteeism rate will result in advancing stage of Attendance

management Programs.

 No improvement in attendance rate of an employee will be asked to repeat stage.

 The meeting related to Attendance Management Program will not be regarded as

disciplinary meetings.

 A union representation will be given to employees in various stages having similar

reasons of absenteeism.

Sickness Absence and Annual Leave

 An employee at UDST being absent due to long sickness will be entitled to annual

leave after returning to work. 5 days of annual leave will be guaranteed if the long-

term sickness leave end after previous annual leave.

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 An employee being ill while being on annual leave is required to inform their

immediate supervisor and forward their medical certificate of fitness note. Any fitness

note for a period of 10 days day will be recovered from reimbursed into annual leave.

Evaluation

The implementation of procedures designed for management of Culpable and non-Culpable

Absenteeism will be reviewed periodically (Bangor UK University, 2009). The experience of

staff, employment developments, legislation revisions and quality assurance will be

guaranteed in those period reviews. The HR department at UDST and Committee of Health

and Safety of Employees will be responsible in monitoring and evaluation of Attendance

Management Policy at UDST

Any staff member or employee can address their questions or comments to their immediate

supervisor or Head of Department who will deal with them or will pass them to Human

Resource Department for further considerations if required.

References

Bangor UK University. (2009). Attendance Management Policy - Bangor UK University.

Retrieved from https://d2l.cna-qatar.edu.qa/d2l/le/content/71126/viewContent/1750015/View

Randolph Community College. (2013). Employee Attendance Policy. Retrieved from

https://www.randolph.edu/policy-manual/vi-employment-matters/b-22-employee-conduct-

attendance-policy.aspx

Secord, H. (2003). Implementing Best Practices in Human Resources Management. Canada,

Canada: CCH Canadian.

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USF. (2018). Attendance and Leave Guideline for Employees. Retrieved from

https://www.usf.edu/hr/benefits/attendance-leave/al-policies-and-procedures-for-employees-

113018.pdf

Vanderbilt University. (2015). Attendance and Punctuality. Retrieved from

https://hr.vanderbilt.edu/policies/attendance-punctuality.php