Workplace Absenteeism
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Running head: WORKPLACE ABSENTEEISMPOLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Workplace AbsenteeismPolicies and Procedures
Pamela Avila
University of Phoenix
Workplace Absenteeism Policies and Procedures
American companies lose an estimated $30 billion through the abuse of sick leave privileges, each year. A study conducted on absenteeism in the US (Blumberg, 2002) reported that small companies paid an average of $60,000 per year due to employee absenteeism, while large companies paid over $3.5 million annually. These costs included lost productivity, overtime paid to other staff members, payments to temporary workers hired to fill in, decreased productivity for workers having to put in extra hours, and decreased employee morale which causes problems in productivity and turnover (Parbhoo, 2002). This paper will discuss the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), how an organization complies with this law, and the tools utilized to assess the effectiveness of an organizations policies and procedures regarding absenteeism in the work place.
The Family and Medical Leave Act provides that certain employers with 50 or more employees must allow eligible employees to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave for qualifying events. The FMLA can not discriminate against employees who have used this leave. The employer can not use the FMLA as a negative factor in employment actions, such as hiring, promotions, or disciplinary actions; nor can FMLA leave be counted under 'no fault attendance policies. Therefore, if an employee is absent from work because he or she is on FMLA leave, the employee cannot be disciplined for his or her absence under the employer's attendance policy
(Slobin, Bracewell, & Patterson, 1998).
An employee may be absent or tardy because of a disability...