new attendance procedure question

[vigilante]

Can someone answer please.

If a person returns to work after a long period of uninterrupted sick, hasn't had an informal review, just a back to work and telephone comms , can they be asked to go to an
formal review??

Also is the dismissal stage the only stage that you can appeal at?

Thanks.

[fishtank]

An informal review is a separate part of the attendance procedure. It is not mandatory and what triggers one is very vague. The formal review is triggered automatically when the standards are breached.

Also is the dismissal stage the only stage that you can appeal at?

Yes but it's good practice to have any disagreement the member might have with the decision officially noted at each review stage and obviously if as a rep you believe the attendance procedure is being deliberately abused by the managers in your office you have the IR Framework to fall back on.

[General Mannerheim]

yes they can just go straight to a formal review.especially if your DOM or manager dealing with the absence is an arsehole(about par for course) he's probably been told by higher up the food chain to issue you a stage/sorry 1st review .
You could throw them a curve ball by requesting an informal review.
yes you can only appeal a dismissal but you can always start a grievance if you don't agree with them issuing you with a 1st or 2nd stage review.

[vigilante]

Thanks for replies FT and general you have confirmed what I thought.

[ronpetetrevchris]

We had this in our area recently, but the area rep proved that you couldnt have a formal without an informal first. Damn i wish i could remember where he found that out, il try and get hold of him today.

[BernardBresslaw]

So do we not have a 'return to work' meeting now then? Or is that the informal review?

[fishtank]

We had this in our area recently, but the area rep proved that you couldnt have a formal without an informal first.

I can't see how that makes any sense.
If you have 14 days off in a row it will trigger a formal review, are you saying that a manager would have to have an informal review followed by a formal review, possibly on the same day?

[ronpetetrevchris]

We had this in our area recently, but the area rep proved that you couldnt have a formal without an informal first.

I can't see how that makes any sense.
If you have 14 days off in a row it will trigger a formal review, are you saying that a manager would have to have an informal review followed by a formal review, possibly on the same day?

I cannot grt hold of him, its sat, but i remember him reading me the paragraph presumebly from the new agreement that statedca formal could and should not take place eithout a prior informal. I suppose in the case you talk of fish it dosent make much sense and im sorry i cannot elaborate all i know is our dsm backed down so there has to be some truth in it

[mleonard]

The informal review is something that your manager can choose to give you at any time (up untill a stage is triggered, which then becomes a formal review). Think of it as a friendly chat/warning/reminder that you may trigger a stage soon if you have any more abscences. Nobody really encounters them because a DOM would have to manually sift through peoples sick records looking for people who are on the threshold of a stage warning. Why would anyone want to do that?

Of course once the stage is triggered (by the system) the DOM is sent an E-Mail and told to conduct a formal interview.
As for an informal review needing to be done before a formal review, I don't believe this to be the case. An informal review is an entirely optional process that the manager (or postman) can choose to initiate, and it has no bearing on the triggering/issuing of a formal review.