Abandoning employment – casual employees  

Generally, if an employee has not attended work for three consecutive days without any communication to the practice, this can be taken as abandonment to their employment.

When managing staff, there may come a point in time where an employee abandons their employment. If this occurs and you have not had any communication from the employee or are not provided with any reasons as to why they are not attending work, there are some actions the practice can take. This article delves into the best practice approach to terminate casual employees who have abandoned their employment.

It starts with the employer making every attempt to contact the employee in case an unforeseen circumstance or emergency has occurred and they are unable to contact the practice. Make a file note of all attempts made, messages left and any conversations had. If attempts to contact the employee are unsuccessful, an employer should send a final letter setting out all attempts made to contact the employee, and provide a specific date by which, if no contact is made, the employer will have deemed the employee to have abandoned their employment. If there has been no response received by that date, the employee will be considered to have abandoned their employment, amounting to the ending of the contract and termination of their employment. 

For practices who have purchased AMA Queensland contract templates, this article goes someway in explaining the clause that is included in the full-time, part-time and casual contracts and the practical application surrounding termination when abandonment of employment may occur. 

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