It is vital to TAG B Transportation for all employees to have reliable attendance. Absenteeism and tardiness negatively impact our ability to effectively provide transportation services. The purpose of this policy is to establish the requirements for reporting absences, to provide guidelines for the handling of tardiness, early departures, and unscheduled absences, and to outline employees’ need to adhere to established work schedules to maintain efficient, effective operations.

WHO IS GOVERNED BY THIS POLICY:

This policy applies to all employees.

POLICY STATEMENT:

Staff employees must arrive and be prepared to commence work at their scheduled start time. Employees are responsible for notifying their supervisor of absences, late arrivals, or early departures.

Unscheduled absences, tardiness, and unscheduled early departures (whether excused or unexcused), failure to provide appropriate notification, or abuse of sick leave may result in corrective action up to and including termination of employment.

Absences, tardiness, and early departures due to approved leave, or reasonable accommodation as required by law will not be counted as occurrences.

1. Management should communicate to staff employees the importance of timely and regular attendance and define when and whom an employee should call if he/she is going to be absent or tardy. It should also address a time frame when an employee who will be delayed is required to notify supervision.
2. Supervisors are responsible for reviewing and approving time before each time approval deadline. It is the responsibility of the Supervisor to ensure the time submission is accurate
3. Employees must notify their supervisor of any unscheduled absence, tardiness, or unscheduled early departure as far in advance as possible.
4. Employees must record attendance and absences in the TAG B shuttle website. Immediate supervisors are responsible for reviewing and verifying attendance records (at least weekly) and recording occurrences, if applicable, to ensure the accuracy of the records.
5. An unscheduled absence will be recorded as one (1) occurrence. Each tardy or unscheduled early departure will be recorded as one-half (1/2) an occurrence. No occurrences will be recorded for scheduled absences. However, pattern absences or failure to provide timely notification may result in absences being counted as unscheduled absences.
6. Supervisors should follow the corrective action progression described below to address unscheduled absences, tardiness, and unscheduled early departures. When an employee has accumulated four occurrences, each two occurrences thereafter will advance the corrective action process, up to and including termination of employment. However, depending on the situation, corrective action may be accelerated, repeated, or taken out of sequence, and TAG B Transportation reserves the right to effect immediate termination should it be warranted.

Verbal warning upon four (4) occurrences.

Written warning upon six (6) occurrences.

Final warning or suspension upon eight (8) occurrences.

Termination of employment upon ten (10) occurrences.

7. Employees will be subject to immediate corrective action for no call/no show. Two (2) or more consecutive workdays of no call/no show may be considered job abandonment and result in termination of employment.
8. Supervisors should be observant and identify pattern absences. Employees will be subject to immediate corrective action for pattern unscheduled absences.
9. Bi-weekly employees will not be compensated for time lost due to tardiness. However, an employee who is late six minutes or less is considered tardy but will be paid for the time. Tardiness of more than six (6) minutes will be unpaid. Meal periods and breaks may not be used to cover for absences or tardiness. An employee may not extend the normal workday or work beyond his/her scheduled shift to make up for being tardy without the prior approval of the employee’s supervisor.
10. An unscheduled absence is unpaid. Acceptable means of verifying the reason for the unscheduled absence may be required. An employee will not be compensated for unscheduled absences.
11. Requests for scheduled absences, including jury duty, time off (vacation or personal holiday), bereavement, military leave, medical leave, and personal leave must be requested 72 hours prior. It is the employee’s responsibility to request leave or excused time off and to submit appropriate documentation. Employees who will be unable to report to work as scheduled are required to contact their supervisor. Denied leave or other requested time off, failure to return to work after an approved leave, or failure to comply with these guidelines may result in the treatment of time away from work as an unscheduled absence, tardiness, or unscheduled early departure under this policy.
12. Employees absent more than three consecutive days due to illness or who are suspected of abuse of sick leave may be required to submit a proof of illness certificate, issued by a health care provider, identifying when the employee was seen and treated. Failure to submit such proof upon request may result in corrective action.
13. Due to the nature of the services that employees provide we are rarely able to close our operations. With that in mind, employees are expected to report for work on severe weather days and to plan ahead to anticipate any difficulties that might be encountered. If an employee will be late or unable to report to work, the employee must notify his or her supervisor as soon as possible. Management will decide whether employees will receive occurrences for tardiness or unscheduled absences on severe weather days.