Forced Unpaid Leave

barnumdog

I hope someone can help.

My Wife works for a small company and one of the engineers lost his battle with cancer at 27 years old.

The MD decided rightly as a mark or respect that all employees should attend the funeral and that the company would not be trading on that day.

Payday comes around and we notice that my wife wages are down. When she asked the MD about this, she was informed that the entire company have not been paid for the day of the funeral.

How should this be handled by my wife and the other employees and is this against some employment law.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated?

Thanks

Prothet_of_Doom

They should demand that the company donate all thier pay, and double it to a cancer charity.

fruitedeli

In China people attending funerals give money inside an envelope to family of the deceased. The culture in Europe is very different. People are demanding money to attend funerals.

It's not like the company profited. Nobody worked on that day so there's no winner.

You can demand payment but don't expect a long-term career if you make yourself unpopular like this.

makeyourdaddyproud

fruitedeli wrote: »

In China people attending funerals give money inside an envelope to family of the deceased. The culture in Europe is very different. People are demanding money to attend funerals.

It's not like the company profited. Nobody worked on that day so there's no winner.

You can demand payment but don't expect a long-term career if you make yourself unpopular like this.

This is not China in case you haven't noticed.

It is unfair to expect an employee to take a pay cut for someone they may not know personally.

Your sentiments are well placed, but I think the employee should have a choice rather than have it imposed. The real rogue here is the boss - very immature and presumptive in his approach.

This is a difficult one, thought I am sure if you were to push the issue of repayment, you would get recompense. Just be prepared for a relations disaster area.

I personally would take umbrage to this decision. However, depending on your circs you could elect to let this one pass. From then onwards, I could not trust my boss as an agent of fairness any longer.

fruitedeli

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

This is not China in case you haven't noticed.

It is unfair to expect an employee to take a pay cut for someone they may not know personally.

Your sentiments are well placed, but I think the employee should have a choice rather than have it imposed. The real rogue here is the boss - very immature and presumptive in his approach.

This is a difficult one, thought I am sure if you were to push the issue of repayment, you would get recompense. Just be prepared for a relations disaster area.

I personally would take umbrage to this decision. However, depending on your circs you could elect to let this one pass. From then onwards, I could not trust my boss as an agent of fairness any longer.

At least you can trust him to make everyone attend your funeral if you die before everyone else, lol.

Abbafan1972

That's the trouble with working for "small" companies, they seem to be able to do things like this and get away with it.

I don't think I would be happy with being docked pay for a day off I didn't want.

You could say something, but as the others have said, you risk making yourself unpopular.

I work for a similar company, there is no HR department, I can only go to the boss and his partner/girlfriend does the holidays/wages. Our company shuts down over Christmas, but we have to take it out of our holiday entitlement. I am not really happy about that, but if I was to say something, I would just get told "tough, If you don't like it, look for another job", or something along those lines!

spacey2012

With jobs so damned hard to find, lets put it this way, he is not going to die again and cause a scene and they may just work out they can now employ someone to do the same job on less money as it is now an employers market.
Legally they may have acted outside, but legal and rights do not put food down on the table.

redpete

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

I work for a similar company, there is no HR department, I can only go to the boss and his partner/girlfriend does the holidays/wages. Our company shuts down over Christmas, but we have to take it out of our holiday entitlement. I am not really happy about that, but if I was to say something, I would just get told "tough, If you don't like it, look for another job", or something along those lines!

The company I work for employs several thouand people in the UK and also shuts down over Christmas for which we have to take annual leave, so not just a problem for small companies.

an9i77

But this wasn't forced annual leave was it - it was unpaid leave.

OP can she take a day's annual leave in lieu so she is still paid for the day missed, this will mean one day down on her holiday allowance but no loss of earnings.

I'd be asking the MD about this if I was her

AP007

Sorry but I would have asked about pay before I attended.

I didn't know it was law to make staff attend a funeral either.

AP007

an9i77 wrote: »

But this wasn't forced annual leave was it - it was unpaid leave.

OP can she take a day's annual leave in lieu so she is still paid for the day missed, this will mean one day down on her holiday allowance but no loss of earnings.

I'd be asking the MD about this if I was her

Weren't they forced to attend the funeral? the OP didn't say they were offered paid holiday and not to come in that day.