Time off to cover school closures

 As many of you will be aware, a significant number of Public Sector employees, including teachers, will be striking on Thursday 30th June. This will have an impact on businesses which employ parents of school age children. Although there is a clear government message requesting that schools remain open, in some cases they will have no option but to close if they don’t have adequate numbers of teachers remaining in school.

 What should you do if a parent requests the day off?

The legislation gives those with dependents a right to emergency time off. This leave is unpaid. Under these circumstances, your employees will be able to invoke this right, as they will not be given much notice.

You may wish to be proactive and ask who is likely to take the time off, whether they have other family members who could look after the children, or whether there is a facility for them to work from home. If none of these options exist, they may have to take the day off. Again, you may want to look at solutions around payment including asking them to take annual leave, or working the hours back over the next few weeks.

Realistically, this is likely to be the beginning of significant industrial action, so whatever you decide this week, you may need to rely upon again, in future months.

If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to call us, and we will guide you in any decisions you take.

See Hardwick Blog on this subject here: http://hardwickhr.wordpress.com/