Security Resources Attendance Policy
Unit: UA Police Department
Contact: John Hooks
Title: Chief of Police
Effective Date: 2/21/2003
Revision Date: 02/21/2023
Purpose
Maintaining a stable and reliable workforce is critical to the effective and efficient delivery of services we provide. Excessive tardiness and absenteeism negatively affect operations and employee morale. It is recognized that unplanned time away from work will be necessary. This policy sets forth the expectations for attendance, communication requirements, and establishes corrective action standards for unacceptable attendance.Policy
Employees are required to report to work, properly clock in and out, be in uniform, and to be prepared for duty at the beginning of their work period. Being repeatedly absent from work or tardy to work without good reason, not having adequate leave time to cover unprotected or unapproved absences, misrepresentation of time worked, failure to be at assigned workstation as scheduled, as well as, failing to consistently follow the clock in/out and call-in procedures subjects an employee to progressive discipline up to and including termination.Attendance will be monitored on a regular basis and unsatisfactory attendance will be addressed in a timely and consistent manner. Unplanned absences, tardiness (including late return from lunch/break), and unscheduled early departures, unless they are considered an excluded absence, will be counted as occurrences and based on the total number of occurrences within a rolling 12-month period will result in the following progressive steps of disciplinary actions: Verbal Counseling; 1st Written Counseling; 2nd Written Counseling (which may include an unpaid suspension) and Termination.
If the employee demonstrates a pattern or practice of absenteeism or tardiness or other actions which are an attempt to circumvent the policy or which negatively affect services provided and/or business, additional disciplinary action may be taken and may be outside the steps listed. This includes but is not limited to the employee: calling in with consecutive off days; calling in for two consecutive days off; calling in for mandatory overtime; calling in for a shift in which requested leave had been denied, clocking in but not being in the assigned work area ready to begin work at the scheduled time, failing to follow the department's call-in guidelines, being absent without leave (AWOL), and/or abandoning their job.
An employee who has accumulated at least three (3) written warnings in an eighteen (18) month period under this policy is subject to termination without proceeding through the remaining steps of progressive discipline. Security Resources reserves the right to bypass any or all steps when an employee accumulates occurrences too rapidly to administer the appropriate steps of disciplinary action and to make exceptions to corrective action procedures listed above.
Initial Employment Period/Introductory Period Employees
An employee, in their initial 6-month employment period, who has four (4) occurrences, may receive a written warning (if not in an introductory period) or written notification (if in an introductory period). If the employee has one or more additional occurrences within the remainder of the initial 6-month employment period or extended introductory period, the employee may be subject to termination of employment.If a written notification is given in the introductory period and the remainder of the introductory period is completed successfully, the employee will be considered as being at the written warning step of the disciplinary process at the end of the introductory period.
Procedures
Call-In Guidelines
Should an employee need to be absent or late reporting to work, it is the employee’s responsibility to notify the department in accordance with the department’s notification process. As soon as a SRA knows they will be absent or late to work they are to call Central Monitoring, 205.348.9494, and report to the on-duty supervisor. The on-duty supervisor will then notify the employee’s supervisor. If the on-duty supervisor is unavailable when the employee calls, the employee must leave a message with a good call back phone number with the call receiver. Employees are required to report in daily when absent (this is not required for employees on an approved continuous leave of absence).Failure to follow the call-in procedure will result in the application of the progressive discipline process.
Counting of Occurrences
Unplanned absences, tardiness (including late return from lunch/break), and unscheduled early departures will be counted as occurrences as follows:- Unplanned Absence - Attendance issues that meet the definition of an unplanned absence (as noted below) will count as one (1) occurrence.
- Tardy - Late arrival/returning from lunch/break, leaving early (as noted below) will count as a half occurrence (1/2).
- Total of seven (7) occurrences (for any reason) = Documented Verbal Warning
- Additional Full Occurrence; total of eight (8) occurrences (for any reason) = Written Warning
- Additional Full Occurrence; total of nine (9) occurrences (for any reason) = 2nd Written warning (may include suspension and/or imposed probation)
- Additional Full Occurrence; total of ten (10) occurrences (for any reason) = Termination
- A mandatory overtime shift.
- A scheduled shift the calendar day before or/after a scheduled shift on a UA Holiday.
- A scheduled shift on a UA Holiday.
- The calendar day before or after an approved scheduled day of leave.
- Movement through the steps above are to be executed in full increments of an occurrence(s) and not with a half occurrence. For example, if an employee receives a verbal warning at 7.5 occurrences, then a written warning could not be given until the employee had reached 8.5 or more occurrences.
- Double occurrences may be reduced to a single occurrence, subject to department manager approval, if medical documentation is provided to substantiate the need for the absence.
- An employee who is denied a requested day off and calls in on that day may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.
Definitions
Absent Without Leave (AWOL): Employees are expected to have sufficient leave time to cover their absences unless the absence is protected under UA policy or has been approved by the department manager via a written request by the employee. Being in an AWOL status subjects the employee to disciplinary action for excessive absenteeism.Excluded Absences: Absences that are generally not counted in the absenteeism and tardiness guidelines under this policy include:
- Protected absences such as those covered by UA Policy such as those under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Military Leave, Pregnancy Recovery Act. Pre-approved annual leave, birthday leave, scheduled sick leave, bereavement leave, jury duty, or pre-approved absences in accordance with department guidelines.
- Hospital confinement, including same day surgery.
- Absences due to a work-related injury and approved as an on-the-job (workers' compensation) injury.
- A tardy which has been approved by the manager in writing, for extraordinary circumstances such as weather-related emergencies.
- A tardy due to malfunctions of ID badge readers/time clock verified by the department supervisor or Payroll.
Tardy: A tardy is any time an employee fails to be at their workstation ready to work at their scheduled start time, as well as returning late from lunch or break.
Misrepresentation of Time Worked/Failure to be at Assigned Workstation as Scheduled: Misrepresentation of time worked is when an employee may clock in but does not directly report to his/her assigned work area to begin work or clocks in and leaves the work area. For example, an employee clocks in and then subsequently leaves to park his/her car, or leaves the designated work area to obtain food, put up personal items, etc. and fails to begin work in the assigned work area as scheduled. Managers may also address, through progressive disciplinary action, a pattern of not being at the workstation, ready to begin work by the scheduled shift start time. Misrepresentation is also when an employee clocks in/out for another employee. Misrepresentation of work is subject to disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination of employment without prior warnings.
No Call/No Show and Job Abandonment: Employees are expected to notify their department in accordance with their department’s procedures for absences and/or tardiness in the event he/she cannot be at work as scheduled. An employee who fails to call and report to work is considered a no call/no show. Any one incident of failure to call/show may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. Three (3) consecutive scheduled shifts of failure to be at work as scheduled and failure to notify the department considered job abandonment and may be subject to termination of employment.
Scheduled Work Shift: Any time that an employee is scheduled to work to include voluntary or mandatory overtime shifts, and/or regular scheduled shifts.
Unplanned Absence: An unplanned absence is a scheduled shift or series of consecutive scheduled shifts where the employee fails to report for work or fails to work at least six (6) hours of the assigned shift and such time was not approved in advance by the supervisor. For the consecutive shifts scheduled, the absence will be counted as one occurrence if the time off is for the same illness/reason. A healthcare provider/physician’s certification and/or employee health referral may be required for such absences to be paid. A healthcare provider/physician’s certification does not automatically “excuse” the absence and is subject to being counted as an occurrence under the Attendance Policy with the exception absences protected under UA policy. Requests in advance, preferably two weeks, are recommended when employees are requesting time off for any planned partial or full shift absence. Should the employee fail to receive approval in advance, the time off will be counted as an unplanned absence.