Child's Hospital Appointment

[TheStorySoFar]

Background; I'm a Nurse, working in a GP surgery...my 3yo son has a hospital r/v app post surgery. I took unpaid leave to stay with him in hospital. Fair enough. Work has a policy of 2hrs pays leave for hospital apps & after that its unpaid. Fair enough. But are denying me the 2hrs to take my son...because it's not MY appointment!!! They have told me I can take Time Owed (which I have) or Unpaid Leave. I feel very annoyed & that this is unfair. Is there any legal aspect to this I suitor know about to support my case?

[daisychain01]

Could you offer to make the time up specifically to cover the time you need. And give it a time limit eg I will work an extra 4 hours over the coming 10 days to make up the time.

I tend to take a very practical view about these things- it isn't a lot of hours but it is important from their perspective that you are seen to be taking it seriously. Hopefully a GP surgery would be receptive to a healthcare appointment!

[VivienneWestwoodsKnickers]

It seems reasonable of your employer - that's time for you, not a third party (child, parent or otherwise).

What about parental leave? Any contractual entitlements there?

[YellowLawn]

it sucks.
we had to take annual leave (both dh and I) for a chronic illness of dc that needed lots of lengthy appointments for investigations & treatments at it's worst.

can dc's father take him?

[Musicaltheatremum]

Seems reasonable. GP land is in crisis just now. We have just had a nurse off sick for 6 weeks then phased return. As we no longer get SSP reimbursed it costs us a fortune. I have no problem with this at all and in fact spoke to nurse today as she is back on full hours next week to make sure she is happy and spoke to fellow nurse prior to this who confirmed she was ok.
I think you need to take it on the chin to be honest

[TheStorySoFar]

No compassionate or parental leave (unpaid leave at their discretion depending on the circumstances). Maybe I am being a bit unreasonable in my expectations. But I feel that a small goodwill gesture can go a long way & I feel really let down about this. I am a hardworking reliable employee & fed up covering for other less conscientious colleagues....so I think that in this instance a little bit of generosity would've been the right thing to do to raise a little bit of morale. But thx all for taking the time to reply.

[mohuzivajehi]

I think it's a fair policy, sorry.

It's in your employer's interests to give paid leave for hospital appointments for yourself - that will help you to look after yourself, hopefully catch any problems early and maximise your productivity.

It's not remotely in your employer's interests to offer paid leave for children's hospital appointments - it would mean you didn't even attempt to seek another solution eg getting the child's other patent or a grandparent to taken them.

[Amaried]

Very standard practice really. My company expects our hospital appointments to be taken as leave so you are in fact very lucky. It's only two hours.

[Babyroobs]

I agree with the others, it's 2 hours and if you have time owed then just use that so you won't need to take it unpaid. I am a Nurse too and we wouldn't even be able to take time off ourselves for hospital appointments - they would give us the shit off but we would be expected to work another shift that week instead and it would be the same for kids appointments.

[NotMyPenguin]

Standard practice, but still shit! How are people meant to have children and bring them up while both working, which is now the expectation? Legislation needs to change to safeguard the rights of parents in employment. It doesn't reflect the real world, but a fantasy world where the 'default human' at work is male and has either no children or a stay-at-home wife who can deal with all things child-related. In real life, both parents now work, and issues like this are a major problem.

[HCPinhiding]

Frustrating but it's the same in my NHS trust. Also every time I have to stay home because my daughter is unwell that goes against my sickness record at work. I've now breached the policy on this because of it. There's no goodwill from the employers side of it anymore IMO. And a huge amount of ignorance / denial (*delete as appropriate) regarding the (incredibly) low staff morale.

[NewIdeasToday]

On that final point. I can't see how taking days off as your daughter is sick goes against your sickness record. Surely you aren't claiming that you are sick? What arrangements do you make if you have to stay off eg making the time up the following week?

[dotdotdotmustdash]

I does seem like a miserly policy but I can see your employer's side. If they employ someone with no children there will never be the need for paid leave for dependant's appointments, but if they employ someone with 10 children with chronic illnesses their employee would be entitled to too much time off. It would do a huge disservice to working parents to give employer's 'another' reason not to employ them. The way they do it is the fairest solution.