Attendance Issues...Again

[Cunningham]

Does anyone roll tardies and call-in occurrences together? If so, what policy do you have in place?

[hrdoctor]

Both are attendance issues and shoudl be addressed as such. There are a couple of approaches that might be helpful. The approach chosen must comply with the labor laws of your area.
A point system can be applied with pre-determined values to the infraction. For example, tardy could be .5 points; attendance could be 1 point. Maximum allowable before the employee is released from employment could range from 6, 8 to 12 points per year, 6 month period, or whatever makes sense for your particular business situation. The key is to be consistent in applying the rules.
Another approach could be tracking the number of attendance issues whether tardy, absence, unscheduled or unplanned appointments, etc.
Communication of the program is critical as well as getting an acknowledge either in writing or by some method that allows management to be certain that everyone understands the policy application.
What happens when there are truly unavoidable reasons for the absences such as personal illness, family tragedy/illness, child care issues, transportation, etc.? Stick to the policy, but first counsel the employee on the options available to them to stop the accumulation of points/infractions such as applying available benefits such as personal leave, government dicated leave, etc. If they are not eligible or there are no options available, offer the employee the option to resign without penalty toward future re-employment. Counsel them that once they have resolved their personal issue, they can reapply without penalty and be considered for positions that are available, if they are meet the minimum requirements of that position. They do forfeit seniority and any other benefit of continuous employment if they resign, but they do not suffer a forced-termination rating in their employee record.
To truly be successful and reward those employees who are sincere in improving their performance, there should also be some type of point/infraction buy-back program attached to the policy.

[ccattraighe]

What an interesting idea -a point system weighting behaviours and pointing it directly to termination. You are right - both are attendance issues and should be dealt as such. I deal with a Canadian unionised workforce and although there is a discipline structure there has not been a single termination in the life of the company for illness or what we call non culpable illness. I'm not sure that is an awful thing as we are still succesful with it. The frustrating thing is we have some peopel who exploit the loopholes to have us pay for them to take time off. There are so many stops along the way before it comes close to termination.