HOW TO DEAL WITH UNAUTHORISED ABSENCES
An unauthorised absence is an absence during which an employee fails to attend work but
where he or she does not have a statutory or contractual right, or the employer's permission, to
be absent. Usually, the employer has failed to contact the Company and people may well be con-
cerned as to the employee’s health or safety.
Absences that are due to pre-booked annual leave, genuine and correctly reported sickness
absence or family-related (e.g. maternity) leave, or that result from a statutory right to take time
off (for example to look for work in a redundancy situation, or for antenatal care) of course do
NOT constitute unauthorised absence. Simply put if an employee fails to attend work without a
good reason, or without notifying the Company, this will amount to unauthorised absence.
Unauthorised absence may take various forms. It can take the form of an isolated unplanned
absence for a good reason (for example to care for a dependant in the event of an emergency) or
a persistent pattern of unauthorised absences (for example "Monday morning syndrome"), which
are likely to be less acceptable. Alternatively, an employee may "go AWOL", taking an extended
period of unauthorised absence. Employers should not therefore deal with every situation in ex-
actly the same way, it is recommended that the length of, and reason for, the absence should de-
termine how the employer deals with it.
While unauthorised absence without good cause is a disciplinary offence, an employer faced
with an incidence of unauthorised absence should investigate the situation and hear the employ-
ee's explanation, before it takes formal action.
Clearly, employers need to be consistent, fair and non-discriminatory in how they deal with
unauthorised absence, or risk being liable in the event of an unfair dismissal and/or unlawful dis-
crimination claim. However, the level of action that is appropriate for an employer to take in re-
spect of unauthorised absence will depend on the circumstances of the case. For example, an
employee who takes a one-off day of unauthorised absence for a good reason would normally be
treated differently to an employee who has a prolonged period of absence without proper cause
and who repeatedly fails to return the employer's attempts to contact him or her.
There is no obligation on employers to pay employees their normal pay for periods of unau-
thorised absence, whatever the reasons for it. An employer that fails to pay an employee in
these circumstances would not normally be in breach of the employee's contract of employment.
Non-payment would also not amount to an unlawful deduction from wages because payment
would not be "properly payable" (under s.13 (3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996) in the first
place. However, to help reduce the likelihood of a dispute about non-payment, employers can
include a clause in the contract making clear that employees will not be paid for periods of unau-
thorised absence.
Whether or not an employer can lawfully dismiss an employee for unauthorised absence de-
pends on the reason for, and length of, the absence and the procedure that the employer fol-
