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February 23, 2016
Employee tardiness is a significant problem for employers – and bad weather is one of the top three reasons that employees give for it according to the National Post. Given Canadian winters, it’s important that employers understand how to effectively manage employee tardiness and absenteeism caused by adverse weather conditions.
Here are three tips to help employers manage employee tardiness due to adverse weather conditions.
1. Implement a “reasonable lateness” policy
“Reasonable lateness” policies give employers a framework within which to manage employee lateness based on adverse weather conditions. The policy could be a “stand-alone” policy or the employer could include it within the context of a more general attendance (or absenteeism) management policy (or “AMP”).
Reasonable lateness policies are intended to recognize employees for the reasonable time and effort they’ve spent attempting to get to work, and eventually attending work, for their scheduled shift in the midst of adverse weather conditions. They aren’t intended to require the employer to compensate an employee for not being at work. Rather they are designed to ensure that employees who arrive late at work during adverse weather conditions aren’t disciplined and don’t suffer a loss of income where the direct cause of their lateness is the adverse weather. The policy should:
Typically, employees must either make up missed time or deduct it from vacation or banked time or, as a last resort, take the time as leave without pay. However, many employer policies do make an exception for this when the employer closes the worksite altogether because of bad weather conditions. If this is the employer’s approach, the policy should set it out along with how the employer will advise employees of the closure.
2. Assess the reasonableness of each request on a case-by-case basis
The most difficult task for the employer: determining whether the employee’s lateness is, indeed, “reasonable” – or if the employee was just plain late. It’s the employee’s responsibility to justify her lateness to the employer’s satisfaction, and the employee is therefore responsible to explain to the employer her efforts to attend work.
In applying a reasonable lateness policy, the employer has absolute discretion to determine what constitutes reasonable efforts by the employee. However, in judging that reasonableness, one size doesn’t fill all; the employer must always base its determination on the specific individual circumstances on a case-by-case basis.
It’s helpful for employers to develop a form for employees to complete to make a request for reasonable lateness approval. Such a form will enable the employer to obtain the information from employees that it needs to process a request for approval of lateness on the basis of adverse weather conditions, including:
3. Consistently enforce the reasonable lateness policy
As with any policy, the employer should be sure to enforce a reasonable lateness policy in a consistent manner. Using the following checklist to review each request will assist the employer to do so:
To learn more about 10 of the top employers’ attendance – and absenteeism – management problems, and some tips to help employers deal with them, read McInnes Cooper’s: 10 of the Top Employers’ Attendance Management Problems.
Please contact your McInnes Cooper lawyer or any member of the Labour & Employment [email protected] McInnes Cooper to discuss this topic or any other legal issue.
McInnes Cooper has prepared this document for information only; it is not intended to be legal advice. You should consult McInnes Cooper about your unique circumstances before acting on this information. McInnes Cooper excludes all liability for anything contained in this document and any use you make of it.
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