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Managing absent employees has become even more challenging with the rise of online medical certificates, a workplace lawyer says.

"Dealing with someone who is absent, or particularly where they're absent due to injury or incapacity, is probably one of the most difficult aspects of being an HR manager," Mallesons senior consultant Brett Feltham says in a new HR Daily Premium webcast.

This isn't helped by how easy it is for employees to obtain medical certificates online, he adds, noting that it's "increasingly unlikely that they will contain any useful information in them whatsoever".

"Unfortunately, though, the general position is that you cannot challenge a medical certificate. The starting point really is you have to accept it at face value..."