A team member simply has not turned up. What can you actually do? Three things, lawfully: you do not have to pay for the hours not worked, you can treat unauthorised absence as a conduct matter and discipline for it, and, if the pattern continues, you can ultimately dismiss, fairly and with a process. What you cannot do is fine people, dock extra money as a punishment, or announce that they have “sacked themselves”. Here is the playbook.
Hour one: assume emergency before assuming attitude
Call, then text, and note the times. Most no-shows are transport, childcare or a phone that died, and a few are genuine emergencies. The welfare-first opening protects the relationship if it is innocent and strengthens your position if it is not, because you can show you tried.
Pay: what you can and cannot withhold
Not paying for the unworked shift is lawful; that is simply paying for work done. Going further is not: a £20 “no-show fine”, docking a future shift, or rounding the deduction up all amount to unlawful deductions from wages unless a contract term specifically allows them, and punitive deduction clauses are a bad idea anyway. Keep it clean: unworked time unpaid, nothing more.
When they resurface: the return conversation
Hold a short documented conversation: what happened, why no call, what happens next. If there was a decent reason but no call, the failure to report is still a conduct issue worth a clear informal warning, because the reporting call is what lets you reorganise a service. If there was no decent reason, treat it as misconduct: for a first offence, usually a formal warning after a fair (short) process rather than anything heavier.
The disappearing act: when is it a resignation?
Almost never assume it is. Silence is not resignation, and treating it as one is how cafes lose claims to people who never came back. The safe sequence: repeated contact attempts over several days (calls, texts, email, all logged), then a letter saying the absence is unauthorised, inviting them to explain, and warning that continued silence will be treated as a disciplinary matter that may end in dismissal. If silence continues, invite them properly to a disciplinary hearing, hold it in their absence if they do not come, and dismiss for unauthorised absence with the decision confirmed in writing and a right of appeal. Slower by a week than “they’ve sacked themselves”; cheaper by a tribunal.
Prevention beats process
Publish rotas early and get shift confirmations, make the reporting rule explicit (a call to a named person by a set time), and act on the first no-show every time. Teams notice what gets ignored, and no-shows are contagious.
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General guidance for UK employers, correct at 22nd July 2026. Not advice on a specific situation. More guides for your sector: HR for cafes and coffee shops. Not sure where your gaps are? Check your HR Risk Score in 3 minutes.
