I am in CA and we have an employee that was put in jail on Oct 2nd. She was released on Oct 5th and showed up for work on the 6th.

Employee was arrested again and put into jail on Oct 8th, she has not been back to work since. My HR deptartment is advising not to fire, but write her up when she returns to work.

Could we consider this job abandonment? the employee did not contact anyone on the second arrest. We found out by calling the jail. What if any laws protect the employee from loosing her job?

Thanks

HR is advising not to fire? Why?

(a) You are free to fire an employee who is in violation of your absence reporting and/or no call-no show policy, and (b) there are no laws that require an employer to extend leave time to an employee because of incarceration.