Absconding Deserting Employees

[NIRE]

There are two different issues here.

Let’s do the easy one, there is a little law (common law) that states "No work, No pay" thus if the person is not on legitimate leave of any sort then you do not have to pay for work not done.

The tricky part is the drug reasons and the responsibility of the company in this regard. Unless the company has a specific policy and procedure dealing with alcohol and substance abuse this is a very grey aria in the law.

(get policy in place asap that states clearly that the company will not tolerate any alcohol and/or substance abuse and that sumary dismissal will be the result. this will sort out future issues)

Basically the company must show that a reasonable effort was made to assist the employee. (referral to drug rehab, time off to attend, counselling) the procedures outlined in the code of good practice for dismissal in cases of poor work performance would be the closest to the procedures to follow in this regard.

However this does not make the company responsible for this employee as long as an effort has been made to assist it is still his responsibility to do what is needed to clean up.

My best advice here would not be to take action against the employee for the addiction but rather on his conduct and/or failures related to his work.

Absenteeism - being absent for any periods without permission or a doctor’s note (warnings would be penalty here)

Misconduct - any conduct that is contrary to the law and/or policies and procedures of the company (final warning to dismissal is penalty here dependent on the severity of the incident)

Negligence - any action or failure to act that has potentially or actually caused damage to the company (final warning to dismissal is penalty here dependent on the severity of the incident)

I would give him a disciplinary hearing and dependent on the facts give him a final written warning with a stipulation that he attends a rehab clinic and supply proof of his successful completion within a specified time (reasonable time).

This then leaves it up to him to either clean up his act or move along as failure to ad hear to this and further incidence of similar nature within a 12 month period results in a hearing within which dependent on the facts he will be dismissed.

Hope this helps