Dean* with unex • ected absence
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• Check the relevant contracts and handbooks to find out whether you have the right to withhold payment for the period of absence.
• Speak to the employee and assess what efforts they made to get home. Look at each case individually.
• Decide whether absent employees are not 'ready to work, and if not, do not pay
for the relevant period (deducting at 1/365 per day).
• Amend your handbook to assist you next time something like this happens — as it surely will.
If the employee is not "ready and willing to work", then they are likely to be in breach of contract. If that has caused some direct and definable loss (perhaps the cost of agency staff), then it is possible that a hawkish employer could claim against an employee for such loss. However, such a claim could not be by a deduction from wages, but would need a separate civil court action.
This is likely to be counter-productive since the loss of staff goodwill could well outweigh any money recovered.