Single parent child sick time off

[singleparentmayhem]

Can anyone tell me if an employer can make you make the time up if your child is sick and you have no choice but to stay off work to look after them? I am a single mum and my girls father does not see the girls so he cannot help out. All of my family work so when my daughter is ill i have to take time off with her. She seems to pick up every bug and it is becomming a problem. We have been taken over by a new company and they are far from family friendly as i now have to work one in four Saturdays and I have nobody to l;ook after my daughter but I have been told i have no choice as everyone has to now do some Saturdays, yet the others have partners or families to help out or thye have older children. Please can someone help me it is making me a bag of nerves each time she is sick!! I am new to this site from today and am glad to have someone to ask!

[MiffyWhinge]

am self employed (in large part for this very reason) so can't be much help, but isn't there now a legal right to carer's leave or somesuch?

[RibenaBerry]

Well, there are two different issues here. Time off for sickness and changing your hours.

In terms of sickness, unfortunately the rights aren't great. You have the right to 'emergency' leave for care of dependants, but that is generally just to make other arrangments (e.g. a day, maybe two), not to cover the whole illness. The law simply talks about 'reasonable' time off, but that's how it has been interpreted. There is no right to be off for a week or whatever, unless you can argue that it is reasonable, and that's far from clear.

There may, of course, be a more generous company policy.

In terms of the Saturdays, have they just changed your hours with no consultation?