Abandonment of Employment

Abandonment of employment

Abandonment of employment occurs when an employee is absent from work for an extended period without notification, authorisation or good reason.

When dealing with possible abandonment, an employer must be very careful when making the decision to terminate an employee’s employment agreement.  This decision must consider sufficient information, facts and good faith.

You should ensure that all your employment agreements are covered and include a clause on abandonment of employment.

What should I do?

When you have not heard from your employee, you should endeavor to make contact with them. 

1. Call them on their home phone, mobile phone or other contact numbers you may have.  Make sure you leave messages for the employee to contact you as soon as possible.
   
2. If you are unable to contact the employee, try their emergency contact numbers.
3. Make sure you make a record of when and how you attempted to contact the employee.
4. Continue your attempts at making contact each day.

If a number of days have passed without word from your employee you need to:

1. Advise the employee (by all possible means, phone, email and in writing) that their employment is in jeopardy advising them that unless they contact you by a specified time, their employment may be deemed to have terminated by reason of their abandonment.
2. If there is no response, advise the employee (again by all means including writing) that their employment is deemed to have terminated by reason of abandonment.

Make sure you keep a record of when and how you attempted to contact your employee.  This will be important if the employee disputes abandonment of employment.

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