3 absences from work in a year - can OH be disciplined for this?

escortg3

parental leave – dads also have the right to take up to 13 weeks unpaid leave until their child is five years old

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/WorkAndFamilies/Parentalleaveandflexibleworking/DG_10029416

The above is taken from direct.gov website.

VfM4meplse

SarEl wrote: »

And neither do you work in the public sector - where almost all employers have strict managing sickness absence procedures and three absences in 12 months would trigger stage one of capability process.

Not in the NHS! Policies were deliberately loose and relied on the line manager anticipating patterns rather than a clear indication of what would be viewed as suspicious, which made it near impossible to manage w/o risking grievance proceedings. It's actually v difficult to maintain a viable team if HR lets you down left right and centre.

Hence a particular staff member would take a sickness absence every month, when I was well aware that she was spending that time in bed with her OH. Staff elsewehere in the organisation would routinely spend their time not working and randomly accusing others of bullying, harrassment and racism.

saintjammyswine

Then that was your PCT or whatever it is/was called not the public sector generally.

smileylondongal

escortg3 wrote: »

parental leave – dads also have the right to take up to 13 weeks unpaid leave until their child is five years old

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/WorkAndFamilies/Parentalleaveandflexibleworking/DG_10029416

The above is taken from direct.gov website.

We looked into this too, however, it doesn't cover sickness unfortunately so if you have to look after your little one then you either have to take emergency/compassionate leave, annual leave or sickness. Not brilliant, unfortunately!

escortg3

smileylondongal wrote: »

We looked into this too, however, it doesn't cover sickness unfortunately so if you have to look after your little one then you either have to take emergency/compassionate leave, annual leave or sickness. Not brilliant, unfortunately!

It states

. time with your child during a stay in hospital
. All employees have a right to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with certain emergencies involving people they care for. This is known as time off for dependants, and applies regardless of how long you have been working for your employer or whether you have child or adult care responsibilities.

So if your child was in hospital and under 5 yes it covers you as i read it

tizerbelle

escortg3 wrote: »

It states

. time with your child during a stay in hospital
. All employees have a right to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with certain emergencies involving people they care for. This is known as time off for dependants, and applies regardless of how long you have been working for your employer or whether you have child or adult care responsibilities.

So if your child was in hospital and under 5 yes it covers you as i read it

Parental Leave and Time Off For Dependants are two distinct absences. Parental leave has to be applied for in advance and for periods of a week or multiple weeks at a time (maximum 4 weeks per child per year). The employer can postpone the start date of parental leave if they have a valid reason and for upto 6 months.

Time Off For Dependants is for emergency / unexpected situations. You are allowed 'reasonable' time off to deal with the emergency and make any arrangements that are needed. There's no set amount of time allowed to deal with an unexpected event involving a dependant - it will vary depending on what the event is but for most cases one or two days should be sufficient to deal with the problem (according to direct.gov)

tizerbelle

OP, I suspect as has been said that this is a "procedural" meeting. I would not worry too much. Your OH has had two periods of "time off for dependants" which is a statutory right and it would not appear that either absence was unreasonable in length for the circumstances. Employers are not allowed to subject employees to detrimental treatment or dismissal for taking emergency time off so I would suggest that your OH remains calm, clarifies the purpose of the meeting and explains (if needs be) that time off for dependants can not be classed as personal sick time (it certainly doesn't qualify for SSP).

markwilkinson

I think this is merely proceedure.

The 3 absences in 12 months rule needs to be applied equally to all employees and there is a vast difference between an employee who is late or absent after being tagged in a photo in a nightclub the night before, on Facebook and someone else who has 3 very genuine reasons for their absence.

I would imagine that it will simply be an informal meeting to establish the facts and that will be the end of it.

If it does end up with a some kind of disciplinery action then it's only the first stage ie a verbal warning - not ideal or perhaps even fair, but that isn't much to worry about and should only be temporary.

SarEl

saintjammyswine wrote: »

Then that was your PCT or whatever it is/was called not the public sector generally.

I agree. If you want to criticise the NHS policies then fine - but that is not the whole public sector.

ohreally

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Your OH obviously doesn't work for the public sector, where swinging the lead is rife!!

Typically characterised by being micro managed by egotistical, poorly equipped, inadequate line managers, who then in turn blame everyone else for the shortcomings in their department, crap staff, ambiguous policies, interfering trade union, poor support from HR etc etc etc.