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Simple email communications can wield enormous power in helping to prevent and defend disputes involving absent workers, according to an employment lawyer.

Hillhouse Legal Partners director Robert Lamb says two of the most common absenteeism scenarios he encounters are when an employee has used up all their leave and is still not turning up for work, or has been warned of termination then stopped turning up.

By the time the employer seeks legal advice, the employee has often stopped communicating. "[But] in the absence of not having any information yet, you've got to assume what they're doing is lawful. And often it will be, if they've got a medical certificate, so you do have to be very careful," he tells HR Daily.

The problem is that from a business perspective, even if the employee has exhausted their leave, they're likely still accruing entitlements, affecting both the employer's bottom line and the employees who are covering for them...