Changes to the Attendance Management procedures in GMEW District

Changes to the Attendance Management procedures in GMEW District

In the past few weeks there have been a number of significant changes that may not have been communicated to you by the Department or District in full. Some of these are as a result of imposed changes under the Civil Service Reforms, but some are District level impositions. The overall impacts of the changes are that it becomes even more important that members contact a representative for assistance as soon as is possible and certainly before any Formal meeting with a Manager.

The DWP Attendance Management Procedures for warnings and appeals have been amended. The two warnings under the current procedures have been renamed to:

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An Oral Improvement Warning is  renamed as a First Written Warning

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A Written Improvement Warning is renamed as a Final Written Warning.

The DWP Attendance Management Policy has also abolished the right for individuals to raise a grievance against any warning with the Manager that made the decision. Instead there is a single tier right to Appeal. “The Appeal Manager must not be the Decision Maker, the Decision Maker’s line manager or the employee’s countersigning manager unless everyone agrees that they can be. Appeal managers must be demonstrably independent in that they or their line manager must not have been previously involved in the case so that they are able to take an objective viewpoint”.

The consequence of this change is not just that individuals no longer have two opportunities to get unfair decisions corrected, but also that any appeals must be submitted within 10 working days of the decision, whereas previously a grievance could be submitted within 15 working days.

District Management have also “made a decision that line managers would conduct a cause for concern interview when staff have reached an absence level of 6 days in a rolling twelve month period. We feel this is preferable to waiting until a member of staff has reached a total of 8 days absence in a twelve month period before mentioning the possibility of a warning being issued”.

Whilst the meeting is classed as being informal members may bring a TU rep to the meeting if they wish.

In addition; the District has decided that individuals will be required to speak to an HEO or SEO (if an HEO is not available) when making initial contact to report their absence. Part of the purpose the ‘First Call’ process is to:

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Identify what it is, specifically, that prevents the employee travelling to work and/or which aspects of the employee’s duties/functions they are specifically unable toundertake.

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Explore whether any temporary workplace adaptations could be implemented to enable the employee to decide whether to attend work and undertake all or some of their duties.

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Consider reasonable adjustments under the reasonable adjustments policy where the employee has a disability or serious underlying medical condition.

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Provide employees with access to the Department’s support services e.g. theEmployee Assistance Programme (EAP), Physio Advice Line (PAL).

However, PCS have concerns that the new arrangements could potentially create challenges tothe “independence” of an appointed Appeal Manager if they have been involved at a prior stage,especially where a relevant factor may be a dispute about whether appropriate reasonable adjustments or temporary workplace adaptations were made.