Should we exclude maternity/disability-related absence from attendance bonus criterion?

Q. We have a quarterly bonus in place. One of the criteria is 100% attendance. Am I correct that absence related to maternity or disability should be excluded from this particular criterion?

Seamus: Well, we had a similar question to that.

Scott: We'll come back to that one. That's why I raised that just now, it's similar to another one we got in earlier.

Seamus: It sort of leads into it. I think you need to be careful in terms of those aspects of disability or whether it's maternity. Those aspects are generally protected in relation to treating the person differently. I think that you would need to tread carefully in terms of the loss of the person if it was on the basis of their inability to attend work through disability or a maternity period.

Scott: So, you make some kind of an adjustment. So, say that somebody's off on maternity-related absence during this quarterly bonus that they're getting here, then you would say they've got morning sickness or whatever, we're not going to count that as an absence day, but if they're off with the flu, we'll count that.

Seamus: Even if they're pregnant or not with the flu, if the reason for the absence is the flu, that's the reason and that can be discounted at that point.