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Absence of an Employee Without Communication: How to Properly Document It and What an Employer Must Not Do
If an employee fails to appear at work and cannot be reached, the HR specialist must first and foremost not qualify the situation as absenteeism (truancy), but properly document the fact of absence. Until the reasons are clarified, such non-appearance must be accounted for as an absence for unknown reasons.
The practical algorithm of actions is as follows.
- On the day of non-appearance, an act of the employee’s absence from the workplace should be drawn up, indicating the date, time, work schedule, workplace, and the persons confirming the absence. It is advisable to draw up such acts for each day of absence or with a periodicity determined by internal procedures.
- In parallel, it is necessary to record all communication attempts: phone calls, messenger messages, emails, letters to the postal address, requests to the last known contacts. These proofs are kept in the HR file.
If the employee appears or gets in touch, the employer must demand written explanations and documents confirming the reasons for the absence. Only after this is it possible to resolve the issue of the validity of the reasons and the possibility of applying a disciplinary sanction.
Dismissal for absenteeism under paragraph 4 of part one of Article 40 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (KzPP) is possible only if the employee is absent from work for more than three hours during the working day without valid reasons. Since such dismissal is a disciplinary sanction, the employer must comply with the requirements of Articles 147–149 of the Labor Code: demand an explanation, consider the circumstances, terms, and issue an order.
If an employee has been absent for more than four consecutive months and the employer has no information about the reasons for such absence, paragraph 8-3 of part one of Article 36 of the Labor Code of Ukraine may be applied. Its application requires two conditions simultaneously: actual absence for more than four consecutive months and the lack of information about the reasons. Several separate periods of absence are not summarized.
An employer should not execute a voluntary resignation letter without the employee’s volition, grant unpaid leave without an application, change the timesheet without supporting documents, or ignore explanations provided later.
For an HR specialist, the safe position is simple: draw up acts, keep timesheets, document communication, and apply only the ground for termination of employment relations that is confirmed by evidence.
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