Workers' Liberty

Management are trying to introduce new ‘Attendance, Performance and Conduct at Work’ Procedures, and the unions are already in dispute with company about them. So what is wrong with them?

Before we even look at the detail, the alarm should sound that Attendance and Conduct – which have always, rightly, been separate – are being put together in one procedure. The suggestion is obvious – that staying off work because you are sick will be treated as some kind of misconduct. Of course, booking on for work when you are unfit is also misconduct, so where does that leave us?!

Attendance

What will it take to trigger disciplinary action? Going below 96% attendance in any rolling 12-month period ie. having more than nine days off. Nine days! That’s a bout of flu. Or a minor accident. Or a couple of doses of the lurgy.

Oh, but don’t think that if you have over 96% attendance, you are safe. Oh no. If “in the mind of a manager” there is a pattern to your sickness, then even if you are off for less than the nine days in any rolling 12-month period, you can be on the road to disciplinary action.

Oddly enough, being sick during major sporting events or public holidays is even more of a crime that being sick at other times. As if we can control when we are ill!

Our existing attendance policy, imperfect though it is, at least expects managers not to punish you for items such as major hospital treatment, or the effects of being assaulted, witnessing a suicide, or having an accident at work. And it expects the manager to take into account if you have a good previous record. Not this new policy – oh no, all that touchy-feely, sympathetic stuff goes out of the window.

As for being late … Do it just three times in a year and you are in trouble. And again, even if you do it less often than that, if “the mind of a manager” sees a pattern, you could still be up the creek. Even one instance of lateness will see you disciplined if it “impacts upon the operation of the business”.

Note the reference to the “mind of a manager” (stop giggling at the back). It’s “a” manager – so it could be any one of a dozen or more who takes an interest in your record. So if any manager takes a dislike to you, it would easy for him or her to victimise you, or at least let you know that they could if they wanted to.

Tubeworker will blog tomorrow the gory details of the new procedure on conduct and discipline.