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  HR Corner: Disciplinary Action & Termination

- Abuse of leave benefits
- Leave Control 		- Staff on frequent sick leave
 - Medical expenses during confinement


Abuse of leave benefits
In any company, annual leave and medical leave constitute the main bulk of leave applications from staff. In our earlier article, we had said that most companies will leave the responsibility of managing a staff’s leave applications to the staff himself. But if the staff abuses his leave benefits, whether knowingly or unknowingly? How do you treat such abuse?

The underlining principle that most companies adopt is that a staff should not be taking more than his annual leave entitlement. These companies practise “earned leave” or “pro-rated leave”, meaning you can only apply for the annual leave that has been earned or pro-rated. Anything above this earned entitlement is then treated as unpaid leave.

Most abuses of annual leave usually occur when a staff applies often for emergency leave. Technically, as long as leave is not approved, it is considered as unlawful absence where action can be taken such as a warning and leading to dismissal if he is a deliberate offender. If it happens too often, human resource will have to study the trend and then counsel the staff accordingly.

More importantly, perhaps it is an opportunity to review and tighten the internal leave policies and procedures. For example, should emergency leave be treated like any annual leave application that requires the staff’s immediate supervisor to approve? Should you disallow the staff from just calling up the department or worse still, sending a text message to a colleague?

For medical leave, the principle is that the leave applicant is suffering from an illness that a registered medical practitioner had deemed serious enough to warrant recuperation. Unlike annual leave, however, medical leave is different as it cannot be pro-rated. Irrespective of the date that the staff joined the company, he is entitled to the full entitlement at any time during a calendar year, subject to the issuance of the medical certificate by the medical practitioner.

Generally, medical leave is prone to suspected abuse. If this is suspected of a particular staff, you have to study the medical leave trend. For example, how many times in a month is medical leave taken? What day? Which clinic? What sickness? All these will lead you to a trend and once determined, do call up the staff for a discussion about his health status or counselling. Any abuse can often be checked at this point without going further. On the other hand, a confirmed health problem should be given full assistance.

Leave Control
The basic method of monitoring and controlling leave applications is to do them manually with perhaps a spreadsheet program to assist you. However, if the number of employees should reach a critical size, this manual method may not be useful to the Leave Administrator. You may then wish to invest in a dedicated Leave Management system that can help you track leave seamlessly from application to approval.

Having a Leave Management solution alone, however, will not solve any practical issue that may arise. It is important that you should have firmed up your policy on leave applications, have the policy documented and then tailor the software to work according to your policy.

Administrative practices will vary from company to company. Some companies monitor and control their employees’ leave applications at the Human Resource level, while some others leave it to each department’s manager or the employee’s immediate supervisor to do so.

Regardless of the practice, most human resource practitioners agree that the responsibility of managing an employees’ own leave applications should be left to the employee himself. But in order to avoid any misunderstanding or issue that may arise, it is important that all staff be informed in advance of the company’s Leave Policy. Having done that, he should be answerable to any abuse of this benefit.

Staff on frequent sick leave
When a staff is on sick leave, productivity is invariably affected. And when this happens too often, it becomes a concern for his company. What can an employer do when a staff is frequently on sick leave?

Human resource practitioners generally agree on these steps:

  1. Fact-finding on the extent of the sickness.
    This is achieved by collecting the staff’s medical history for the present and past years to see whether there is a pattern. If necessary, you may have to talk to the clinic about the staff’s health condition. For example, you may want to know:

    • Does the staff normally go to one clinic for his medical certificate or does he go to many?

    • When is the medical leave usually granted? Is there a trend, such as after every weekend or public holiday?

    • How does the staff tell his employer about the medical leave? By contacting his supervisor directly or through friends or only when he returns to work?

  2. Talk to the staff about his health.
    It is important at this point not to be antagonistic. As HR practitioners, concern and empathy must be shown to the staff. It is also important to note that the staff may not be very forthcoming with information at the beginning, so patience must also be exercised.

    • If he claims that there is nothing wrong with his health, only then do you show him the data collected and ask for a confirmation from him. You should caution him that the management is aware about the medical leave taken and would want him to change. If his attitude does not improve, you may need to assign him to a particular clinic for his medical visitations, telling him that visits to other clinics will not be recognised. Make him understand the implications of such frequent absences from work and get his agreement in writing on the conditions laid down. Have the meeting documented and served to him as evidence of such discussion and agreement. And finally, closely monitor the progress of his attendance and his behaviour.

      On the other hand, if the staff actually admits to having some health problems, you should offer to refer him to a specialist for a complete medical check-up. The medical report should determine the extent of the staff’s health condition. Most times, the staff should recover with little further intervention. Sometimes, all that may be required is to transfer the staff to another position within the company. But there will be the rare occasion when the staff may need to be medically boarded out. Many companies may be loathe to do this but this solution may be the fairest to both the company and the staff. Medically boarding out an unfit staff is a traumatic experience and the company may well have to provide counselling to the affected staff. You may be required to pay his retrenchment benefits as well as to help him apply for his SOCSO benefits.

Medical expenses during confinement
Do employers have the right to deny the medical expenses incurred during confinement related to maternity, including abortion or miscarriage?

Since the Employment Act 1955 is silent on this point, it will all depend on the practice in each company. The best guideline to refer will be the terms and conditions of appointment, the employee handbook or any policy issued by the company.

It is quite safe to say that most companies do not cover such medical expenses incurred during confinement, miscarriages and abortions. Even insurance policies purchased by companies do not normally cover them. At most, companies will only recognise the medical certificates that are issued. Also, for those few companies that do allow such claims, only the claims for treatment from the government hospitals are normally accepted.

But to some human resource practitioners, sometimes the voice of reason creeps in. A normal successful labour is stressful by itself and the woman who has undergone a miscarriage or abortion is similarly traumatised, both mentally and physically. It is indeed the odd employer that will not empathize with the person. There are some human resource practitioners who will recommend that companies should treat such medical expenses on a case-by-case basis.

After all, they reason, do miscarriages happen so often? If it is not about medical expenses, what reasons could the company have for not assisting an employee that’s affected psychologically? It is a serious moral issue to consider.

This article does not represent legal advice or opinion. It is a summary of opinions and suggestions collected from the JobStreet HR Forum and other sources. Neither JobStreet.com nor the writer is responsible for any action taken by readers as a result of this article. Readers are advised to seek expert assistance when faced with a particular problem.




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