Tardiness Law and Legal Definition
Tardiness - Employer policies require employees to be at work on time, ready to perform the duties of their position. Continuity of service, coverage, and production all rely on the dependability of staff being at work, on time, and prepared to perform the duties of their position. An employee who is frequently tardy, is usually subject to discipline. Docking of pay is permissible under certain conditions. An employee is considered tardy when he/she fails to report for duty at the time scheduled and/or fails to return to duty promptly at any point during their normal schedule.
Employers often take a progressive disciplinary approach to tardiness. Counseling therefore becomes essential to the process of correcting an employee's tardiness problem. The steps taken in progressive discipline may be:
- verbal counseling
- written warning
- letter of reprimand
- suspension
