Child Sickness and time off

Uncertain

Hmm71 wrote: »

It is hard with a little one though.

I'm sure it is but the legal protection only goes so far. It is up to parents to have plans in place to ensure they do not exceed what the law would class as reasonable.

As stated, where there are two parents this should be shared equally. I suspect this is the classic situation where the wife works part time and the husband full time and is higher paid. There is an obvious financial temptation for the wife to be the one to take unpaid time off. However, this is not fair on the wife's employer as it is not their problem.

mad_angler1

Just to confirm

She has had 2 x 1 day for the baby, first in April and one in August, 3 x sick periods of a mixture of 1 /2 days for her self

This makes a total of 2 periods or the baby and 3 for her own sickness

It was made absolutely clear in the back to work interview that the 2 for for the child and not here own sickness.

She was told today that they no longer class them as separate reasons and are classing all previous and future unauthorised absences as sickness.

Iv said this in not legal

marybelle01

mad_angler1 wrote: »

Iv said this in not legal

But it is legal! There is no legal right to take time off to care for a sick child. The right is to reasonable time off to make arrangements to care for a sick child.

Quote from Gov.uk - "For example if your child falls ill you could take time off to go to the doctor and make care arrangements but you’d have to take annual or parental leave if you wanted to look after your child for longer". And parental leave doesn't apply unless you give 21 days notice!

There is no legal right to tim off to care for a sick child - you either take annual leave or unpaid leave, and if it is the latter then it counts as an absence.

mad_angler1

marybelle01 wrote: »

But it is legal! There is no legal right to take time off to care for a sick child. The right is to reasonable time off to make arrangements to care for a sick child.

Quote from Gov.uk - "For example if your child falls ill you could take time off to go to the doctor and make care arrangements but you’d have to take annual or parental leave if you wanted to look after your child for longer". And parental leave doesn't apply unless you give 21 days notice!

There is no legal right to tim off to care for a sick child - you either take annual leave or unpaid leave, and if it is the latter then it counts as an absence.

Yes reasonable Time off. Would you not define 4 hours as reasonable ?

You say there is no legal right so what is time of for dependants then ?

liney

Ignoring the childcare 'sickness,' for a moment.

3 periods of sickness within a six month period is a pretty normal absence managment trigger.

She needs to check the company handbook regarding their absence managment policy.

System

mad_angler1 wrote: »

You say there is no legal right so what is time of for dependants then ?

https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants/your-rights.

mad_angler1

Company policy is 5 instances in a 12 month period rolling


Just to confirm she works 4 hours a day 6am to 10 am, the 2 shifts she had to miss due to the baby were months apart. Then her own sickness 3 shifts were also well separated.

After every instance a back to work interview took place and the reason for the absence was confirmed as either her own or child sickness

Its all been fine until last week when we all had 2 days off due to Norovirus sickness,

I understand the caring for dependants states reasonable time. I would not say 2 x 4 hours was unreasonable this year

Bigmoney2

mad_angler1 wrote: »

Company policy is 5 instances in a 12 month period rolling


Just to confirm she works 4 hours a day 6am to 10 am, the 2 shifts she had to miss due to the baby were months apart. Then her own sickness 3 shifts were also well separated.

After every instance a back to work interview took place and the reason for the absence was confirmed as either her own or child sickness

Its all been fine until last week when we all had 2 days off due to Norovirus sickness,

I understand the caring for dependants states reasonable time. I would not say 2 x 4 hours was unreasonable this year

The problem is that the absence is unplanned and being logged as sickness.

As others have already suggested people often take annual leave to care for sick children or agree to work back the hours taken.

I understand the caring for dependants states reasonable time. I would not say 2 x 4 hours was unreasonable this year

The problem is that the time is logged as sickness absence, not time off for dependants, which is meant to be preplanned and is unpaid (which is why most people use holidays or make up the time).

On the question of sharing the leave it can't be as I work away Monday to Friday, we have child care that looks after the baby in the mornings.

Will the child care not have the sick child for the 4 hours,
I'm assuming there is no back up from grandparents.


Maybe she should be asking the employer what their prefared method of leave would be for future occurances of child illness, or look for weekend work instead, then you would be available for childcare.

Uncertain

mad_angler1 wrote: »

I understand the caring for dependants states reasonable time. I would not say 2 x 4 hours was unreasonable this year

It may well not be unreasonable.

Don't get carried away with the four hours bit. As she only works four hours a day it is her whole day. There aren't many situations where if she was full time she would have gone in half way through the day so the effect is the same.

All she can do is try to ensure they treat her sickness leave separately from emergency leave. Then, in future, make sure you share any emergency requirements and can demonstrate that you have plans in place.

Dunroamin

mad_angler1 wrote: »

I understand the caring for dependants states reasonable time. I would not say 2 x 4 hours was unreasonable this year

But you're not the one who decides whether it's reasonable or not.