Attendance 3-27-13
CITY OF SCHERTZ
EMPLOYEE POLICY HANDBOOK
Attendance
PREPARED BY: Human Resources
APPROVED BY: City Council
DATE APPROVED: 3/26/2013
EFFECTIVE DATE: 3/27/2013
REPLACES VERSION: 2.3.2-2.3.3
Purpose:
This policy is written to provide employees with general guidelines about reporting when
they expect to be late for work or absent. Each department director may specify
additional reporting requirements specific to his/her department.
Policy
Employees will report for work at the time and place specified by the employee’s
supervisor. Unnecessary absenteeism and lateness are expensive and disruptive and place
an unfair burden on the organization, including co-workers and customers. Each
employee will be properly prepared so that the employee may immediately assume
his/her job duties. Failure to adhere to the attendance policy may result in disciplinary
action up to and including termination.
Applicability:
This policy applies to all city employees.
Punctuality
City employees are expected to be at their jobs during the hours established by their
Department head. If the employee must be tardy or absent from duty, he or she must let
the Department head or supervisor know as soon as possible and always within the time
period required by the employee’s Department.
Failure to Report to Work
Failure to report within the required period can be considered justification for disallowing
paid sick leave for an absence. Unless otherwise approved by the supervisor, employees
are expected to call their supervisor on each day of absence at least one hour prior to the
start of their scheduled shift for that day. If an employee is absent for medical reasons,
please refer to the city’s FMLA and Sick Leave Policies.
Where the nature of the absence necessitates an extended period of time off, longer
reporting intervals may be approved by the supervisor, unless the leave qualifies for
Family Medical Leave as that term is defined in the Family and Medical Leave Act
Policy and the employee was unable to give appropriate notice. Frequent tardiness or un-
excused absence is not permissible and is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and
including termination.
CITY OF SCHERTZ
EMPLOYEE POLICY HANDBOOK
Any employee absent from his/her job for three (3) consecutive work days/shifts without
an authorized leave of absence shall be considered to have abandoned his/her
employment.
Reporting Absences
It is the responsibility of an employee who cannot report for work to notify his/her
immediate supervisor or designee as soon as possible or at least one hour prior to the time
the employee is scheduled to be at work unless directed otherwise and notified in writing
by the Department Head. Police and fire department employees and other employees in
safety sensitive positions may be required to give at least four (4) hours prior notice. The
employee must explain the reason for the absence and when he/she expects to return to
work.
NOTE: It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that proper notification is
given. Asking another employee, friend, or relative to give this notification is not
considered proper, except under emergency conditions.
Tardiness
It is each employee’s responsibility to call his/her supervisor at least one hour prior to the
start of his/her scheduled shift to inform the supervisor that he/she will be late. The
employee should specify a time he/she expects to arrive at work. The supervisor has the
discretion to approve the make-up of any time missed by the late employee. Repeated
incidents of tardiness may subject the employee to discipline, up to and including
termination. If however, if the employee is late due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g.
vehicle accident impeding traffic) and cannot provide at least one hour notice, it is
incumbent upon the employee to notify the employer that he/she will be tardy and explain
the reasons for being tardy.
Use of Authorized Absences
An employee will not perform work for another employer or himself/herself, engage in
extra duty employment, or engage in any other actions which would be inconsistent with
the stated reason for taking paid or unpaid leave on the same calendar day that the
employee fails to report for work due to illness, injury or emergency. Violation of this
prohibition will be grounds for discipline, up to and including termination.
Illness-related absences
Employees should refer to the city’s sick leave policy
Use of Paid Leave
An employee may be eligible for paid leave for absences as determined by the guidelines
of the applicable policies.