Conduct and discipline

Unauthorised absence: request to make contact letter

An employee has not turned up and has not been in touch. This asks them to contact you before the matter is treated as a conduct issue.

Day two or three of no-show, no call, and your own attempts to reach them have failed. It is a welfare letter first and a warning of process second. Most of the time there is an explanation; occasionally there is an emergency; sometimes they have simply left.

Before it goes

  • You have tried to phone, and tried the emergency contact, and logged when.
  • You have checked whether any leave, appointment or shift swap was agreed that you have missed.

The letter

[COMPANY NAME] [COMPANY ADDRESS] [DATE] [EMPLOYEE NAME] [EMPLOYEE ADDRESS] Dear [EMPLOYEE FIRST NAME], Your absence from work since [FIRST DATE] You have not attended work since [FIRST DATE OF ABSENCE] and we have not heard from you. I tried to reach you by phone on [DATES AND TIMES] and left messages, and [NAME] called your emergency contact on [DATE]. My first concern is that you are all right. If something has happened, please let me know as soon as you can, and if there is anything we can do to help, tell me. Our absence procedure requires you to tell your manager on the first day of any absence, before your shift start where possible, and to keep in touch after that. Until we hear from you, your absence is unauthorised and unpaid. Please contact me by [DATE, two or three working days ahead] on [PHONE] or [EMAIL]. If I do not hear from you by then, I will have to treat your absence as a matter for the disciplinary procedure, and I would much rather we spoke first. Yours sincerely, [MANAGER NAME] [JOB TITLE] [COMPANY NAME]

Filling it in

Your attempts
Dates and times of every call. This letter is later read against the question "did the employer try?"
Deadline
Two or three working days. Long enough to allow for a real emergency, short enough not to drift.

What the law says

  • Contract: pay is not due for time not worked without authority, unless the contract says otherwise.
  • Acas Code of Practice: unauthorised absence is a conduct matter; investigate before deciding anything.
  • Do not treat silence as resignation. Resignation must be clear and unambiguous.
Guidance, not legal advice. Employment law moves; check the current position before relying on any of it, and take advice on anything that could end someone's employment.

What turns this letter into a claim

  • Do not write "we assume you have resigned". You cannot assume it, and writing it may turn a no-show into a dismissal you did not intend.
  • Do not stop pay without being sure it is unauthorised. If they had a fit note in the post, you will be reversing it.

Questions people ask

Can I treat them as having resigned if they never come back?

Not by silence alone. If a second letter also goes unanswered, invite them to a disciplinary hearing in writing, hold it in their absence if they do not attend, and dismiss for unauthorised absence with the right of appeal. It is a dismissal, so do it properly.

Do I pay them for the days they were missing?

Not if the absence is unauthorised and the contract does not provide otherwise. If they produce a fit note covering the period, statutory sick pay rules apply from the first day of sickness.

The letter, with the names already in

Employ AI drafts letters like this one from the employee's record, so the dates, service and pay are already right, and the disciplinary module writes the invitation and outcome letters from the case itself. All 44 letter families, 49 UK policies, GPS clock-in, rotas, leave and timesheets: £2.50 a month plus £1 per employee. 14 days free, no card.

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