Dear Reader,

I got a great question from a subscriber to the Employment Law Practical Handbook last week.

It’s about a niggly little workplace problem you have probably experienced yourself – and not known exactly how to deal with.

So I thought I’d share the question (and its answer!) with you today…

Here’s the query I received:

Dear Workplace Helpdesk,

I have an employee who has been running late for work recently. His set hours of operation are 9am to 5pm, but over the past month, he often doesn’t arrive until 9:30am, sometimes even later, and he doesn’t stay late to make up. What can I do about this legally?

It’s a tricky one, isn’t it?

You want to be fair – I mean we all run a little late sometimes when unavoidable things pop up – but on the other hand, when an employee is consistently late, it affects your bottom line.

So what can you do about it?

Well, here is the answer from our lawyers:

First of all, you should query why the employee is running late for work and see if they can give you a reasonable explanation (such as family responsibilities). If the employee does not have a reasonable explanation, you should then issue them with a written warning.

The written warning should explain that if the employee continues to arrive late to work, they will be subject to further disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

For those of you that don’t know, the Workplace Helpdesk is a great service that you can access if you are a subscriber to the Employment Law Practical Handbook.

Are you a subscriber? If not, click here for more information.

Until next time…

Claire

Tags: disciplinary action, Employment Law Practical Handbook, running late, termination of employment, workplace problem