Good Afternoon,
We are currently going through a disciplinary process with one of our employees for lateness, sickness and general timekeeping. They are in the final stages and we were going to have a Disciplinary meeting yesterday (01/06/2021) to discuss their future with the company. They have emailed us advising they are currently struggling with their Mental Health and will be getting a doctors note. They have also mentioned they were unable to contact us due to phone not working.
The Story So Far:
They have recently been off sick and the last we heard from them (directly in HR/Management) was last Wednesday to advise they would be arriving late to work due to oversleeping. They then advised a collogue they fell down the stairs rushing to get to work so was now off sick and had to go to A&E. Said colleague lives with the employee in question and said they have been fine and been going out. I tried to call them on the Friday as we have not heard from them directly, but went to voicemail. We had prepared a letter to invite this employee to Disciplinary as they were AWOL technically and not followed the Sickness Procedure which they received on Friday. The last we heard directly was that they were going to be in late on Wednesday. It also didnt help the fact this employee had booked off Friday, but due to end of month this was declined (was made aware previously).
1. Is not following a Sickness Procedure count towards Gross Misconduct (even if its on the smaller scale)?
2. Is not coming to work on a rejected holiday date count towards Gross Misconduct?
3. Where do we stand if we were planning to Dismiss this employee, but now she has mentioned Mental Health (with no previous issues when asked before)?
From what I have been reading, employers are bound to be suspicious in regards to rejected holiday vs sickness etc. As it stood Friday, there was going to be 1 final meeting on the following Monday (01/06/2021 yesterday) with the intention of Dismissal based on the outcome of the meeting.
