Abandonment of Employment – Follow Best Practice or Risk a Claim

🚫 Abandonment of Employment – Follow Best Practice or Risk a Claim

When an employee stops showing up for work without explanation, it’s tempting to assume they’ve abandoned their job. But acting too quickly can lead to an unfair dismissal claim.

Here’s the best practice approach to managing abandonment of employment:
🔍 Investigate first – Don’t assume. Try contacting the employee by phone, text, and email.
📞 Contact their Emergency Contact
If there is no contact from the employee, you must try reaching out to the employee’s listed emergency contact.
🚓 Request a Police Welfare Check
If you’re unable to reach the emergency contact the local Police to conduct a welfare check.
📨 Send a formal letter – Request an explanation and give a reasonable timeframe to respond.
🕒 Allow sufficient time –  7 days is generally appropriate.
📨 Send a Just Cause letter – Request an explanation and give a reasonable timeframe to respond. – 2 days is generally appropriate.
📨 Send a termination of employment letter – Ensure you send a formal termination of employment letter to close the process off.
🗂 Keep clear records –  Document every attempt to contact them. Send all letters via email as well as registered post.
✅ Assess fairly –  If no response is received, only then consider termination and ensure the process is procedurally fair.

⚖️ Make a Fair Decision
If no contact is made within the given timeframe, and all reasonable steps have been taken, you may consider termination due to abandonment but only after ensuring procedural fairness.

At Track HR, we support businesses in managing abandonment cases properly from drafting compliant Just Cause letters to guiding you through every step of the process.

📩 Need a compliant abandonment letter or advice on next steps? Get in touch.

hashtag#TrackHR hashtag#AbandonmentOfEmployment hashtag#FairWork hashtag#HRSupport hashtag#WorkplaceCompliance hashtag#EmployeeRelations hashtag#SmallBusinessHR