Ethical Dilemma at Work: How to Handle Pressure to Falsify Attendance Records?

I am working as a section in-charge in a PSU. I have been asked by my boss to regularly mark the attendance of one of the top union leaders (who never attends duty). This has been going on for the last year. Am I inviting trouble from the CBI or other investigating agencies? If I refuse, I will spoil the relationship with my boss and the union leader. What can I do?

Dear Reik,

Welcome to CiteHR.com. I can understand your predicament, but I do not understand how you could be inviting trouble from the CBI or any other investigating agency. You should have come up with your specific apprehensions.

I also understand that your boss has delegated this task to you as he does not want to annoy the union leader.

Attendance Handling in Your Department

In your section/department, how do you handle attendance? Since you have been asked to "mark" it, I assume it must be in an "Attendance Register" where employees are required to put their initials every day to mark their attendance.

Is the Attendance Register meant for your specific section, or the whole department/organization? Generally, how many employees 'sign' it every day? Where is the Attendance Register placed daily for marking attendance? Is it moved daily after employees have marked their attendance (for example, after an hour of reporting time)?

At the end of the month, who sends the attendance data to Finance - Accounts/Wages/Salary department? Whose signature is on the data when it is sent?

I will be able to provide further suggestions once you provide answers to these queries.

Warm regards.

Dear Sir, thank you for the response. Yes, what you assumed is correct; my boss doesn't want to spoil the relationship with the union leader. I am also involving my subordinates in this, which is causing me distress.

Queries and Concerns

Now, regarding the queries:

There are around 120 employees working under me, including 10 supervisors, distributed across 3 shifts (50 in each of the first and second shifts, and 20 in the night shift, with 30 employees rotating only in the first and second shifts).

There are separate attendance registers for each shift. The attendance of the employees in each shift is marked by any of the shift supervisors as 'P' for present or 'A' for absent. The register is kept on a table with other registers such as the work allotment register, overtime register, etc., which are open for inspection by anyone.

At the end of the month, attendance data is prepared and signed by a clerk, then checked and countersigned by me before being sent to the wage section.

Every employee is aware that false attendance for the union leader is being recorded, but nobody dares to question it.

I understand that this is a corrupt practice as I am working in a PSU. If someone asks questions through RTI regarding the attendance or lodges a complaint with an investigating agency, I fear that I will be in trouble.

With regards,
reik

Dear Reik,

The situation is tricky, as you do not have the system of an attendance register being signed by the employees. You can insist on the implementation of this system, as I believe all employees are literate enough to sign and have bank accounts for salary remittance.

Alternatively, you can stick to the truthful way of showing the true attendance of that person. I hope the Shift Supervisor is making the correct entry against the name of the employees. You can forward the monthly attendance data through your boss. In case you are asked to prepare falsified data, then you can refuse to sign it and ask your boss to send it through his signature.

There are times when one has to 'take the bull by the horns' and refuse to do anything illegal or immoral, and this is one such situation.

Also, remember, you can be in serious trouble because the Shift Supervisor is showing the person absent - A; and your attendance data reflects otherwise. What happens if you certify his attendance without his presence on the work spot and later come to know that he has been involved in an accident or a crime?

Do keep us posted on the developments.

Warm regards.

I can't say more than what Raj Kumar has already said. A supervisor cannot be too good to favor an employee at the expense of his own job and career. Don't allow yourself to be used as a guinea pig. Your thoroughness and integrity of actions and purpose are your only way out of this imbroglio.

Regards,
Yemi

If you get another better job, then go for it. Otherwise, close your eyes, ears, and mouth on the issue because it's not only the case of your company but the country itself where everything happens in such a fashion only. Nobody cares for truth except for praising in hindsight. The advice of being so-called "BRAVE" and "COURAGEOUS" doesn't yield results in a country like ours. Pick up today's newspaper or just look into the sorry state of affairs of our country, and you would not mind paying a small little union leader of your company free wages on approval from your boss. Our politicians and bureaucrats gobble up thousands of crores, and our IT Dept sits on those files hatching eggs. So go with the flow and enjoy your job. Truth is always bitter, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Regards