Working from abroad, manger refused request

RichardD1970

cmthephoenix said:

 I've seen no indication that Matt Hancock isn't taking annual leave to be in Australia - I would certainly be expecting him to be

MPs don't get annual leave (or sick pay or maternity leave etc.), they are not employees but "office holders".

Parliament is in session so by rights he should either be attending or doing constituency work. You would expect MPs to take any holidays during the numerous parliamentary recesses.

He certainly isn't remote working as the OP seems to be suggesting. 

Emmia

Civil Servant here, we are now banned (I mean banned) from doing our jobs from another country, or taking work equipment (mobile/laptop).

Pre-pandemic / EU Exit we could have worked from abroad using email / skype etc.  I think the change  is Brexit based, and probably to do with taxation and/or a UK citizen's right to work and/or data privacy (which would be an issue as your nephew has 'clients').

The only exception to the policy is if you are doing official business overseas e.g. meeting with French counterparts in person (and not day to day work), doing meetings at the UN. Permission for this type of work needs to be sought every time travel is undertaken.

As a manager, I would have to refuse this request from a member of my team. 

If your nephew wants 6 weeks off, he'll need to request an extended period of leave, with possibly (presuming his normal entitlement/leave remaining is less than 30 days) some of it unpaid.

cmthephoenix

RichardD1970 said:

cmthephoenix said:

 I've seen no indication that Matt Hancock isn't taking annual leave to be in Australia - I would certainly be expecting him to be

MPs don't get annual leave (or sick pay or maternity leave etc.), they are not employees but "office holders".

Parliament is in session so by rights he should either be attending or doing constituency work. You would expect MPs to take any holidays during the numerous parliamentary recesses.

He certainly isn't remote working as the OP seems to be suggesting. 

Interesting that MPs don't get annual leave - I didn't know that - does that mean they can take whatever time they like off if they are not being "whipped" to vote? To be able to do any kind of job properly everyone needs down time from it. Personally I don't think it should matter whether parliament is in session or not as I would see an MPs job as being for their constituents, who have 24/7 needs but still everyone needs a break to be able to function effectively. 100% agree that being in the jungle is not remote working as indeed I would suggest that the OPs post is neither.

GrumpyDil

Staying on topic my company is encouraging people to return to the office, albeit it is taking time. 

They certainly would not agree to swanning off abroad for 6 weeks and remote working. He need to either take a 6 week break or do the job being paid for in the way the employer expects him to. 
There is certainly no right to expect to be allowed to work from abroad unless that has been contractually agreed. 

Andy_L

cmthephoenix said:

RichardD1970 said:

cmthephoenix said:

 I've seen no indication that Matt Hancock isn't taking annual leave to be in Australia - I would certainly be expecting him to be

MPs don't get annual leave (or sick pay or maternity leave etc.), they are not employees but "office holders".

Parliament is in session so by rights he should either be attending or doing constituency work. You would expect MPs to take any holidays during the numerous parliamentary recesses.

He certainly isn't remote working as the OP seems to be suggesting. 

Interesting that MPs don't get annual leave - I didn't know that - does that mean they can take whatever time they like off if they are not being "whipped" to vote? To be able to do any kind of job properly everyone needs down time from it. Personally I don't think it should matter whether parliament is in session or not as I would see an MPs job as being for their constituents, who have 24/7 needs but still everyone needs a break to be able to function effectively. 100% agree that being in the jungle is not remote working as indeed I would suggest that the OPs post is neither.

There is no official job description of what they are specifically supposed to do and when beyond the rather woolly "represent their constituents interests and concerns in the House of Commons" It comes down to are their constituents happy enough with their performance to re-elect them

Boomer58

Having worked in an international bank for several years I know there are considerations for the employer allowing an employee to operate from abroad for longer than an ordinary business trip, especially with computer equipment.  Brexit will likely have had an impact too. Your nephew would be well advised to look into his tax status as the number of days per year you can work across borders even within the EU can be surprisingly low.

Ath_Wat

diystarter7 said:

(I said go for it and encourage others but be warned they may see him as a trouble maker)

With the best will in the world, tell your nephew that you are completely unqualified and unsuitable to advise anybody on issues like this, retract all your advice, and tell them to speak to someone else.

JReacher1

There are probably tax implications of working for a UK company in a different country for a significant period of time. Would your nephew not have to pay income tax in the country he is working in?

Emmia

JReacher1 said:

There are probably tax implications of working for a UK company in a different country for a significant period of time. Would your nephew not have to pay income tax in the country he is working in?

Cynically I think the nephew is trying to get 6 weeks off work on full pay, without using his holiday entitlement, on the premise that he's "working"... 

mr_stripey

The company I work for was 100% office based pre pandemic and since we have returned we are on 3/2 system (3 days in the office/2 days WRH). There is a little bit of flexibility and recently a member of the team who is originally from outside the UK had to return "home" for a family emergency. He took 1 week holiday and "worked" from home for two weeks. It was a sensible arrangement for all concerned.

However I think 6 weeks would be a bit of a stretch to be honest. There's no way that would be permitted in this organization I think