Should I tolerate perpetual lateness?

Dear Aunty B,

What do I do? I have a young bloke who is playing some sort of game with me.

I tell him off, he comes in on time. Then gradually during the next few weeks I notice he comes in a few minutes late and then it creeps up again, until yesterday he came in 15 minutes late for his shift. He had some huge excuse about his girlfriend’s car breaking down and he had to go and pick her up. I just don’t get it. It really annoys the other staff who have to cover him.

I have told him off several times and been very clear that he must turn up on time. But I know he is going to do it again. His work is okay but why should I tolerate lateness? Should I bite the bullet and sack him? It seems a bit extreme to sack someone because they’re late, but in this job the time your shift starts is really important and he knows that!

Daz

Dear Daz,

Be careful sacking him. There was an interesting write up on a similar situation by VECCI recently.

A man who was sacked primarily for repeated late attendance at work won nearly $5,000 in compensation. Why? A tribunal found his employer’s previous warnings were inconsistent.

What happened was this. The employee, a weighbridge operator, was sacked nine months into a 12-month contract, after he was formally warned a month earlier for arriving 10 to 15 minutes late for his 6am shift several times.

The man and his employer had agreed on a performance management plan at a meeting in December, where a few other issues were highlighted, such as the reinforcement of a zero tolerance approach to smoking in the weighbridge.

But then on January 20 he arrived five minutes late and that day he was sacked. Yet Fair Work found that the dismissal was unfair.

The reason? The warnings were relevant but “somewhat inconsistent”.

“The indication of seriousness given on October 18, 2010 [by the employee’s supervisor] was not matched by the feedback given at (an) appraisal on November 11, and the first warning given on December 2,2010 failed to emphasise the importance of the matter now sought to be placed by (the employer).”

Also taken into account was the personal circumstances of the man and his family, who moved from Adelaide’s CBD to a location 60 kilometres away to take on the role. So guess what? The bloke who was late was awarded $4,789 in compensation.

So how about that? His employee is late because he moves to whoop, whoop and the poor old boss ends up paying for his next trip to Bali.

What does VECCI make of this? Well, there is a rise in dismissal cases in general. So make sure you do a close review prior to making any decisions. Make sure you have all documents and practices relating to the performance management of an employee – particularly, formal warnings – given that these construct a picture of an employee’s termination that may later prove to be costly.

What do I make of it apart from the world’s gone mad? Just do it all by the book. And if he keeps doing it, as soon as you can, let him go. But he’s not your teenage kid so don’t buy into it.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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