How should you deal with employee absence if they are delayed returning from holiday?

With the volcanic ash situation returning to the headlines again this week, are you prepared should any of your employees be delayed returning from their holidays? Delays can happen for a number of reasons and you would need to agree a sensible approach with affected employees on how to account for their delay back to work. Granting the time off as annual leave entitlement or unpaid leave are clearly the most sensible options. However, whichever policy you adopt, you should ensure that you extend it to any employee who is affected, to retain fairness and consistency in your approach.

If an employee is delayed returning from holiday due to an unfortunate situation, such as their partner or travelling companion being hospitalised, then you would also want to consider either granting annual or unpaid leave. However, if the Company has a policy on dealing with emergencies then you could grant the additional time off under this policy – paid or unpaid depending on the policy. You will also need to have a conversation with your employee regarding how best to deal with unavoidable unfortunate events such as these

Finally, if an employee falls ill on holiday and subsequently does not return to work after their holiday has ended, then I would recommend that you follow your standard reporting procedure and requirements for supporting medical information. This includes the possibility of requesting a doctor's certificate while an employee is on holiday (even if abroad) certifying that, at that time, the employee was incapable of work. You should be aware that an employee may also request that their holiday be classed as sick leave if their illness started during their holiday. This would result in the employee being paid sick pay during this time and requesting they take their annual leave at another time.