A. Any employee who, without compelling cause and prior approval from his or her department head, is absent for five consecutive workdays or any parts thereof and fails to provide notification to the department head of his or her absence, or which absence is otherwise unauthorized, shall be deemed to have automatically resigned his or her employment with the county. For the purposes of this section, any unauthorized absence during any portion of the employee’s normal working day shall be held to be an unauthorized absence for the entire day. Nothing in this section shall prevent an appointing authority from otherwise disciplining an employee on account of an unauthorized absence for any period of time if there is sufficient cause to do so. Any such discipline may include termination of employment. This provision shall not apply as to an employee who due to injury or illness is so incapacitated as to be unable to communicate his or her situation with his or her appointing authority either directly or with the aid of another person.

B. Notwithstanding any other provision in this code to the contrary, an employee whose employment is deemed terminated due to unauthorized absence (per above) shall be held to have left the county service by resignation and shall not require the appointing authority to provide the employee with a due process (“Skelly”) hearing or any other procedural requirements.