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Peninsula Team, Peninsula Team
(Last updated )
Peninsula Team, Peninsula Team
(Last updated )
So, your employee hasn’t shown up to work for a few days, without notifying you that they’ve decided to take a leave of absence. Does this situation sound familiar to you? When an employee has missed work for multiple consecutive days without informing their employer, this could mean job abandonment. As an employer, it’s important to recognize the difference between a leave of absence and when it becomes job abandonment. Your employee has the right to be absent from work for many reasons, including (but not limited to):
Unfortunately, more often than not, by the time employers come to the realization that a job has been abandoned, it’s too late.
Job abandonment is when an employee does not formally notify their employer that they plan to resign, however, takes such actions with no intention of returning to work. Even if the employee has not formally said, “I quit“, orally or in writing, the employer can treat the employee as if they have resigned. If this is the case, as the employer, you may hold wages for abandoned shifts as well as severance pay.
Where your employee has missed several shifts with no notice, your first impulse may be to consider this job abandonment and perhaps make plans to dismiss them. However, you must be careful in doing so, as this may result in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. Under these circumstances, as the employer, you are responsible for showing that you’ve taken reasonable steps to reach the employee. You will need to demonstrate with certainty, that they did in fact, have no intention to return to their job. If you suspect that an employee has resigned but not told you, you can follow these five steps to protect yourself and your company.
HR best practices around unexpected employee resignations is to put a job abandonment policy in place. You can start with these guidelines:
Don’t let job abandonment happen to you. Not only does this disrupt your business, but has an impact on areas such as workplace culture and employee management. Speak to an HR Advisor today if you suspect or are in the middle of dealing with job abandonment.
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