I work for a large company (I wonder if it's the same cal37?!) and it's part of my job as a supervisor to record attendance/absence and conduct interviews with those returning to work. The points system was only introduced where I work this year, and it's a useful tool to remind people that we are trying to be fair, but we have to ensure people don't take the mickey. It's not fair on the rest of the team if the same person always has Sunday off (bag lost, broken window, car broke down, overslept and missed alarm etc.) or if another has family problems and always blame them for their absence, but the word from other departments' staff who know this person is that there is nothing wrong with their family and it's a way of trying to beat the system. On the other hand, we have someone who has a terminal illness and another who has confessed to being an alcoholic. We help where we can and we do listen to genuine cases (no I'm not a doctor and if someone has a sicknote then it's usually a case of No Further Action), we offer referals to the company medical staff and can transfer staff between shifts/departments if it helps with transport issues or childcare problems or personal issues. What we have to do though is treat people fairly, no more than we expect to be treated ourselves, so if people have genuine issues then of course it's not straight down the disciplinary path, but for people who constantly abuse their colleagues with the extra workload, then the Bradford points system is an easy way to show people how obvious they are being at taking the mickey!!! Anyway, off to bed as early start

First post and nice bit of work - straightforward questions. However, I would be inclined to put the account details actually in the letter? Not saying our banks are disorganised but anything that allows them to say "Oh, another delay as we've lost a page of your letter" will just allow them to take advantage of those who aren't sure of the procedure. Otherwise nice job, but have to concur with comments that a template request may not be the route to take?