Disciplinary Action During Resignation

I have an employee who tender on 2^nd January 2009 and his last day will be 31^st January 2009. As his performance is poor and had also cleared all his annual leave, and now he is on unpaid leave immediately after he tender.

It is subject to company approval whether the employee can go for his/her annual leave. Company has the right to reject employee's annual leave.

Furthermore, unpaid leave is not the "entitlement" of the employee, as he/she has consumed all his annual leave entitlement of the year.

You can advise your line manager, talk to the employee and inform the employee officially that with immediate effect, he is not allowed to go for his unpaid leave, as he needs to do proper handover of his job. The employee also must be told that his urgent unpaid leave will be treated as absent, and subject to disciplinary action.

The above communication should be documented, the date, time and the contents what has you and your line manager communicated to him, file in P-file for future reference.

If he continues to go urgent unpaid leave, and continuously for more than 2 days, the company has the right to dismiss his service. As per Employment Act, employee who has absent himself for more than 2 days, his employment will be void.

With the dismissal, you need to pay only all the days he comes to work in January. You can dismiss him when the comes back to work on third day of work, by issuing him the letter and advise him to leave the company.

However, if he only goes absent for one day and come back on another day, you can issue him warning letter, and subsequently final warning letter and then termination of service can be carried out with he absents for 3 consequences. However, any of his absents are continuous for 2 working days, you have the right to dismiss his service.

Should I paid him salary in the month of January 2009?
You shall pay the employee salary until last day of his service, and to deduct out the "unpaid leave" in the month.

My company AWS also falls on this month do I need to pay him too?
AWS is not mandatory and is subjected to the collective agreement (if any) or the letter of appointment. You may also refer to your own company policy whether you shall pay the employee as long as he/she is still on service on payout day or your company mentioned that AWS will not be paid if the employee is serving resignation.

If none of the above was mentioned, it is at the company discretion to decide whether you want to pay the AWS.