Whilst employees are entitled to take 30/36 days’ sick leave in a 3-year period, the BCE Act clearly discourages excessive intermittent absenteeism as outlined in ‘Section 23. (1) ‘Proof of incapacity’.
This section gives the employer every right to request a medical certificate if employees continuously absent themselves ‘on more than two occasions during an eight-week period’, and is contrary to the belief that ‘an employer can only take action once the BCEA allocation has been exhausted’.
Intermittent absenteeism is often the result of an underlying problem (substance abuse, domestic, financial, depression etc…) and is the most disruptive to the employer.
In an effort to improve productivity, it is in employees’ and employers’ best interests to ascertain the underlying cause of the intermittent absenteeism through a reliable system, which assists in the monitoring and managing of employee incapacity.
When a reliable system is in place the employee can be assisted/managed in a way that leads to overall improvements within the company.
At HRTorQue we work with companies to utilise their sick leave monitoring and correction processes as critical management tools.