Cahill and von Grabow are attorneys in the Los Angeles offices of the law firm Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp LLP. Their remarks came at the Preconference Workshop of BLR's National Employment Law Update held recently in Las Vegas.

Attendance Issues

The scenario: A 6-month employee has a record of tardiness, and he never calls in 2 hours before his shift as required by company policy. He has numerous excuses for his lateness, ranging from oversleeping to missing the bus.

After receiving a final written warning, he informs HR that he has been taking medication that makes it difficult for him to wake up on time for work.

While some attendees felt that the employee should be disciplined or terminated, Cahill and von Grabow said that in this situation, they would caution an employer to hold off and consider some possible legal issues, including:

The ADA. The ADA or state disabilities law may require the employer to accommodate this employee if he has a disability under the Act. If so, the employer should begin the interactive process of finding the appropriate accommodation.

Leave laws and policies. Consider whether a leave of absence would be an appropriate accommodation. Even though the employee has not worked for the company long enough to qualify for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a state leave law may apply or the company may have its own applicable leave policy.

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Discrimination. Make sure that the company's attendance policy has been fairly and consistently applied before taking adverse action against this employee. Ask how the company has treated similarly situated employees in the past.

Cahill and von Grabow’s Tip:

In a situation like this, direct the employee to get a doctor's note explaining the excuses for the absences. Cahill also stated that patience is important for HR in these types of situations, noting that if the employee is unable to successfully perform his job, he will eventually quit or be fired.

Practice Good Discipline Check Sheet

 As we see from Cahill and von Grabow, it’s easy to make expensive mistakes when administering discipline. Here, courtesy of BLR's 10-Minute HR Trainer, is a check sheet to help your supervisors and managers deal with lateness and other common discipline issues:

Act Fairly

• Make sure the incident or behavior warrants discipline under your policy.
• Check that the employee knew and understood the rule that was violated.
• Find out if there were any circumstances beyond the employee's control that affected what the employee did.
• Determine if the employee knew and understood the penalties for rule violation.
• Make sure the discipline matches the offense; don't treat minor infractions the same as serious ones.

Act Consistently

• Discipline the same or similar violations in the same way.
• Be sure you're not coming down especially hard on an employee because of personal dislike or other problems.
• Be sure you're not looking the other way on violations committed by employees you like or who are especially important to your group.

Act Legally

• Act promptly after a violation occurs, even if you're just giving a verbal warning.
• Be sure to follow the steps of progressive discipline.
• Document what the rule’s violation was, when it happened, and what disciplinary action was taken and when.
• Check that disciplinary action was fair and consistent in terms of what has happened with other employees.
• Ask whether a reasonable person could interpret this discipline as retaliation for exercising legal rights.
• Ask whether a reasonable person could interpret this discipline as discriminatory.
• Ask whether a reasonable person would feel that the "punishment" fit the "crime."

Discipline—it's not easy for new supervisors and managers. Actually, none of their new duties are easy—hiring, firing, and everything in between (like handling intermittent leave or accommodating a disability).

It’s not their fault—you didn’t hire them for their HR knowledge—and you can’t expect them to act appropriately right out of the box. But you can train them to do it.

Train your line managers with BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer. There won’t be time for classroom boredom. Try it for free.

To train effectively, you need a program that’s easy for you to deliver and that requires little time from busy schedules. Also, if you’re like most companies in these tight budget days, you need a program that’s reasonable in cost.

We asked our editors what they recommend for training supervisors in a minimum amount of time with maximum effect. They came back with BLR’s unique 10-Minute HR Trainer.

As its name implies, it trains managers and supervisors in critical HR skills in as little as 10 minutes for each topic. 10-Minute HR Trainer offers these features:

• Trains in 50 key HR topics, including manager and supervisor responsibilities under all major employment laws and how to legally carry out managerial actions from hiring to termination. (See a complete list of topics, below.)
• Uses the same teaching sequence master teachers use. Every training unit includes an overview, bullet points on key lessons, a quiz, and a handout to reinforce the lesson later.
• Completely prewritten and self-contained. Each unit comes as a set of reproducible documents. Just make copies or turn them into overheads, and you’re done. (Take a look at a sample lesson, below.)
• Updated continually. As laws change, your training needs do as well. 10-Minute HR Trainer provides new lessons and updated information every 90 days, along with a monthly Training Forum newsletter, for as long as you are in the program.
• Works fast. Each session is so focused that there’s not a second’s waste of time. Your managers are in and out almost before they can look at the clock. Yet they remember small details even months later.

Evaluate It at No Cost for 30 Days

We’ve arranged to make 10-Minute HR Trainer available to our readers for a 30-day, in-office, no-cost trial. Review it at your own pace and try some lessons with your colleagues. If it’s not for you, return it at our expense. Click here and we’ll set you up with 10-Minute HR Trainer.

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