Employee Took Uninformed Leave Due to Illness: Should HR Allow Rejoining Without Medical Proof?

Dear Seniors, If an employee has taken 15 days of leave without informing HR and management due to severe fever, and now he is asking to return to his job but has left his medical reports at his hometown and is unable to show them, although he has informed his senior about his problem. His previous performance was more than satisfactory. As the HR person of this company, should I provide rejoining or ask for resignation? Please suggest a fair decision.

Thanks & Regards,
Miravi

If the person has been a good worker, give him the benefit of the doubt and allow him to return to his job. However, at the same time, request that he provides the medical proof that he left behind in his hometown. I am sure that his relations should be able to send the same to him or you.

Handling Absenteeism and Rejoining Procedures

A tricky situation. In some companies, if employees don't report to the office without any reason for a specified number of days as per the HR policy, it is deemed as absconding. Necessary formalities for removing their name from the payroll are then carried out. Even if the employee returns, they are treated as a new employee.

In this case, if you wish to ask the employee to rejoin, please ensure to collect the medical certificates within a certain period. Also, try to obtain an undertaking from the employee that they shall not repeat similar behavior in the future, and file those letters in their personal file. You also need to address the statutory payments, such as PF, for the period missed by the employee.

Once you have clarity on all these aspects, I feel there is no problem in continuing the service.

Regards

If the employee is a good worker and his past record is good, and since he says he could not join duty as he fell ill and could not produce the medical reports at the time of joining, you can take the following course of action:

1. You can get him medically examined by the company's doctor or any panel doctor (if you have one), or in the absence of it, by a civil surgeon and obtain a certificate of fitness to ensure that he is fit to resume duty. Nobody can find fault with HR for allowing a sick person on duty or for any unforeseen health issues developing after his resuming duty.

2. You can ask him to get his medical reports from home to be submitted to HR for further necessary action in the matter.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
B. Saikumar HR & Labour Law Advisor

Handling Employee Leave and Absconding Cases

In your post, it says the employee has already informed his senior. His senior should then inform HR. However, if the senior becomes aware very late, counsel the employee to help him understand the company policies. Seek a letter from the employee stating that, in any case, he would inform his seniors or reporting manager about his leaves. Along with this letter, he has to submit his medical reports at the earliest.

Managing Absconding Cases

For absconding cases, always send a letter to the employee's home address asking him to report with an explanation to the management. This letter should be sent via registered post with acknowledgment. Send three letters weekly, and then send a final letter stating that if he does not report within 2 or 3 days, it will be understood that his employment terms would be canceled. Later, you can proceed with deletions in PF.

Hope this information will suffice for your requirements.

Regards

Circumstances stated at re-joining smell something fishy, and the employee's sickness does not sound genuine. However, since he is a good performer, you can allow him to rejoin with written recommendations from his boss.

Communication in Today's World

It is a big surprise that in today's world of communication, where many options are available to pass on a message (telephone, mobile, fax, email, post, courier, SMS…), from any corner of the world, an employee remains absconding for fifteen days and now gives a justification that he was ill.

Responsibility of the Senior

Actually, his senior, who was aware of this sickness and did not inform HR about absenteeism, is responsible for such indiscipline. Also, it is the concerned senior's job to get the medical reports upon his joining back. When a sick employee informed his senior about his leave, the senior should have warned him that at the time of rejoining, he must bring his medical reports.

Take a recommendation in writing from the senior stating, "Employee be allowed to rejoin without medical reports, and the same will be made available to HR within a week's time." Let this senior also get involved in the issue.

Many learned followers have rightly suggested taking a lenient view if the worker is a good worker. I would like to go further and suggest that if this is not habitual negligence on the part of that particular worker, just give him a caution letter not to repeat such practices in the future, else the same will be treated strictly. Just allow him/her for duty. At the most, you may ask the employee concerned to give a written explanation for his absence and obtain consent from the Unit/Project Head who is in charge of unit affairs before issuing a warning-cum-joining letter.

In the future, I would humbly suggest you follow the same procedure.

Good luck,

Regards,
AK Jain HR Personnel NCL, CIL

Role of HR in Employee Retention

I have a question: Why are HR professionals appointed? Is it to remove good people or to ensure that good people stay with the company? If it is to remove people, then what you asked in your query, "whether I should ask for resignation," has an automatic answer. If you are there to take care of good people and your company needs good people, then obviously, the question of removal will not arise.

As an HR professional, one has two roles to perform: ensuring that good people stay with the company and maintaining discipline without disruption. Therefore, your decision should be such that the erring employee receives a message that discourages such behavior from happening again and eliminates the need for your company to replace them.

Thank you.

If you are serious, it's better to get the event checked with the concerned hospital/doctor without the knowledge of the employee. In this case, you will know what is happening, and then you can act according to the situation. All said and done, I would suggest letting him work with a last warning.

Thank you.

Your absence from work for fifteen days is too long for you not to report to management. I agree with Abhaybandekar that you should have taken advantage of the wonders of communication available today. In some companies, you could be charged with being absent without leave (AWOL) or absent without permission (AWOP), and you could lose your job as a consequence. You are badly needed by your employer; otherwise, what is the point of hiring you in the first place? It is now up to you to convince your boss and justify your absence. Provide him/her with your justifications; documents from your doctor will suffice for this purpose.

Regards.