Section 817: Attendance Support

Purpose

To provide a program to support both management and employees in their efforts to enhance regular attendance at work.

Policy

As an employer, the Government of Saskatchewan (GoS) strives to promote a healthy and safe working environment. Every employee makes a valuable contribution to the delivery of quality services. Failure to attend work on a regular basis can have a significant impact in fulfilling operational responsibilities through lost productivity, replacement wages and benefits, the disruption of daily operations and additional training costs. Employees have a responsibility to maintain their own health and well-being and to ensure their regular attendance at work.

The employer will provide reasonable assistance to support employees in fulfilling their responsibility to attend work regularly. An employee's entitlement to legitimate sick leave benefits will not be limited by the application of this policy. 

This policy addresses excessive, non-culpable absenteeism (innocent absenteeism). Culpable conduct (e.g. sick leave abuse) is not addressed in this policy. For information regarding culpable conduct, see the PS-803 Corrective Discipline Policy. 

Policy Objectives

• To foster a workplace culture that supports the health and well-being of all employees; 
• To promote and achieve acceptable standards of attendance from all employees;
• To define the roles and responsibilities of management, employees and the union in achieving an acceptable attendance standard;
• To establish consistency in administering the Attendance Support Protocol within all GoS ministries/agencies.

Privacy

The privacy of employees will be respected. The personal and personal health information collected for the administration of this policy will only be used by or disclosed to individuals who need the information to perform the duties of their position. The amount of information shall be limited to that which is reasonably required to achieve the purpose. Individuals who have been given access to the information are responsible to:

• Treat the information as confidential and shall not further disclose the information to any other party;
• Where practicable, de-identify personal health information;
• Use the information only for purposes of providing a service or making a decision;
• Safeguard the information from further access (whether intentional or unintentional).

Application

This policy applies to all employees of Executive government including individuals hired as employees by Executive government under contract.

Due to specific requirements within a Ministry, a Ministry-specific policy may be developed. In such cases, the Ministry-specific policy shall apply to the employees within that Ministry.

Relevant Statutes, Policies and Authorities

• The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code
• The Saskatchewan Employment Act
• The Health Information Protection Act
• The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
• The Public Service Act, 1998
• PS/GE Collective Bargaining Agreement
  • Key provision:
    • Article 10 – Job Sharing and Variable Hours
• PS/CUPE Collective Bargaining Agreement
• PS 705 - Employment Accommodation Policy and Procedures
• PS 709 - Variable Hours
• PS 803 - Corrective Discipline Policy
• Employee and Family Assistance Program

Inquiries

For inquiries, please contact the Human Resource Service Centre.

Appendix

Attendance Support Protocol