ATTENDANCE AND TARDINESS GUIDELINES

I. PURPOSE

The following attendance and tardiness guidelines are to be followed by regular and relief employees. Frequent or excessive unscheduled and/or unexcused absences or tardiness
can be cause for disciplinary action.

II. DEFINITIONS

A. Unscheduled Absence: An employee will be considered to be on an unscheduled absence when s/he does not report to work as scheduled, regardless of the reason for the absence. When time off is requested without prior approval due to an
emergency or illness, a specific reason for the request is to be given and accrued PTO time must be used.

B. Unexcused Absence: Time off that was neither scheduled in advance nor excused after the fact based on an unjustified reason. This includes reporting to work after the shift has started or leaving work early prior to the end of the shift. PTO must be used.

C. Occurrence: If an employee misses one or more partial and/or complete consecutive shifts for the same reason, it will be considered one occurrence. Missing two or more consecutive shifts for a different reason will be considered separate occurrences. Holidays and scheduled days off do not constitute a break in a continuous absence.

D. Tardiness: An employee will be considered tardy if s/he reports to the workstation or work area after the scheduled start time or returns late from a meal break, rest period or other situation that required the employee to leave his/her workstation. Tardiness in excess of 60 minutes may be considered as an unexcused absence, at the discretion of the Manager.

E. 12-month period: A 365-day period is calculated as a one-year period continuing backward based on the date of the incident when the employee is absent or tardy.

F. Quarter: A three-month period continuing backward based on the date of the incident when the employee is absent or tardy.

G. Month: A calendar month.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

A. Employee Reporting Requirements
Unless instructed to do otherwise by established department/unit policy, a regular or relief employee requiring time off without prior approval must call either the appropriate Manager or designee, or the staffing office at least two (2) hours prior to his/her official start time if the employee is not able to appear for work as scheduled. If the department is not open before the start of the shift, the employee has sixty (60) minutes after the opening of the office within which to call. Separate from meeting established attendance guidelines; corrective action may be taken if the employee fails to meet this reporting requirement.

B. Certificate of Illness
The Employer may request a certificate of illness, to be documented by a treating licensed health care provider, and/or require the employee to be seen by the Employer’s designated Physician or Nurse Practitioner if the amount of time off due to illness is deemed excessive by the Employer. This includes requiring the employee to be cleared by Employee Health if needed.

C. Attendance and Tardiness Guidelines

1. The required attendance and tardiness guidelines are described below. Occurrences or days above the numbers listed below are to be considered excessive.

10-Hour and 12-Hour Shift

10-Hour and 12-Hour Shift

2. All Non-CRONA relief employees who do not have a set commitment will be required to meet the less than 0.7 work commitment attendance guideline.

D. Absence Patterns

A pattern of absenteeism may also necessitate corrective action even though an employee may not exceed the established guidelines. Corrective action may result in the employee’s discharge. Such examples for corrective action may include but not limited to are:

1. Frequent absences on an assigned Friday, Saturday, Sunday and/or Monday.
2. Absences before and/or after a scheduled holiday or day off.
3. Absences to avoid undesirable work assignments or schedules.
4. The regular/relief employee has had a high number of absences from work in comparison to shifts that the person is required to work.
5. When requested, the failure to provide written proof of illness from a physician or other requested documentation to verify an absence or need for the employee to be absent from work.
6. Leaving the work area without prior approval during or before the end of his/her shift.
7. Use of PTO as rapidly as it is accrued for “unexcused” absences.
8. The failure to report to work as scheduled and no response from the employee after repeated attempts to contact the person.

E. Corrective Action

1. These guidelines will be used along with other appropriate factors when determining if corrective action is necessary. Factors to be considered include but are not limited to the employee’s overall work performance, length of service, preventative measures taken by the employee to improve, the reason given by the employee for the absence, and employment status. The Manager will determine the corrective action to be taken based on the merits of each case.
2. A trial period employee may be discharged immediately if the employee’s absence and/or tardiness are considered excessive or the situation has caused a serious hardship on the department/unit.