Dependant and sick leave..

I used to take unpaid dependents leave when my DC's were sick. I think it's sort of limited to a couple of days at a time though.

Then unpaid parental leave for school holidays which left my annual leave for other child related time off or to have longer off when they were ill.

Not everybody can afford "perks". That doesn't make them "crap". I could point out that your nice big companies are probably not paying for your "perks" - we are. Because it's the huge profits they make that enable them to do it. Not did I say that tehre is no paid dependants leave. There is some. But we don't have the money to pay for the amounts you are suggesting you have. And I am pretty sure that if we did pay for it we'd soon hear whining about yet another "great perk" like our huge pensions (not true) and lengthy holidays (not true) on the taxpayer - despite the fact that the source of all employers money comes from the same source - me and you. Whether it's taxes or prices, all perks are paid for by us. Most of the public sector simply can't afford what you describe and that does not make them crap employers. They are not crap. They cannot afford it. All that dependant leave, in private sector terms, is a cost to profit. Where I work that is a child's future or a vulnerable adult housed. What do you think our "crap employer" should do - give us more paid dependant leave or look after an abused child? Because those are the real decisions that we make daily.

Agreed. We are a small company that can't always offer as generous terms as bigger organisations. Where we make up for that is in terms of flexibility and the understanding that family is most important. The amount of times people have had to disappear for a family emergency in the middle of the day and can just go without fear of getting told off. I'm the boss and I even ended up finishing off our receptionist's work one day when she got a call that a family member had been involved in an accident.

The kindness we show our staff is returned by them in the efforts they put in - we all go above and beyond for each other.

As I said to the said receptionist the other week - family comes first. We're work family, but home family is most important.

Staff stay with us for years and years and very rarely have any disciplinary issues (and where we have they've very much been bad employees, not bad management), so we must be doing something right!

Smaller companies can't always be as 'generous' as larger ones. That's just a fact of life and often made up for in other areas. It would be very naive/inexperienced to think that made them 'crap' places to work.

@RightTimeRightPlace I work for a small company (less than 40 employees) and they are very understanding and have an approach much like the big companies you work for. I guess the horrible companies can be either big or small. Company culture makes so much difference to the overall working experience - especially when you've got young children. It's a shame that people often don't feel they have much choice and have to put up with employers like this.

It's not always as easy as that though in smaller companies. If my senior manager needed to take 5 days off (we have a small company), it would potentially lose us almost £8,000 in fee income.

Realistically, however, in our company, the majority of our staff can WFH so will just do that instead, or in the event of not being able to work will normally offer to make the time up, or take it as leave otherwise.

Our contracts of employment and employee handbook says time off for dependents is otherwise unpaid, but I can't say I recall a time where we've actually not paid someone, due to them being able to catch up or WFH instead.

When did this become about public and private sector?! Although I am shocked that the public sector don't get any paid dependants leave. Don't take it personally, it's not insulting to you if I say it's crap that companies /public or private sector/ don't offer this perk.

I don't disagree. I just don't like the "you must all work for crap employers" approach of that poster, who probably slams all the money being "wasted" on public sector pay and terms, but then thinks their own very generous terms are the norm. Like you I am in the public sector, and it is far, far less generous than many people assume. But then I also know private companies that are dreadful employers and begrudge even paid statutory holiday. Oddly, my experience is that there are far more private sector employers that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole than any other. Many of them huge names - and many of whom are reguarly caught not even paying the minimum wage, never mind giving people time to look after sick children, paid or unpaid.

The answer is potentially yes, but without knowing what their absence policy is, it's impossible for anyone to tell you. Such policies usually set down how much absence (other than annual leave) triggers a disciplinary - for example where I work it is 9.5 days or three occasions in any rolling year. We wouldn't count the first day of dependants leave (so to deal with an emergency or to arrange other care) but subsequent unpaid days would count (but you can take paid annual leave instead if you have it). Sick leave definitely counts and you cannot take sickl eave for sickness other than your own.

But what your employer does will depend on their policy. Most have one, but not all. If they don't have one it is harder to do anything about absences - but those kinds of employers may be more "creative" in getting to the same place.

I suppose it depends on company policy.

Taking 5 days leave (in a row) wouldn’t likely fall under the statutory right to time off. It would probably be at the employers discretion. Taking 5 separate days for genuine emergencies though probably would fall into the statutory right to time off.

Sick leave - depends on policy.

I don’t think you’re quite there yet, but if absences become a problem then your employer could theoretically take disciplinary action.

I’m not sure you need to worry about that quite yet though.

I work for a university - there is no paid leave for emergencies such as this. DH, on the other hand, works for a major private company where he is allowed 5 days ‘ paid leave a year. Just one of the ways in which at least some private employers treat staff far more generously than public sector employers.

That's lovely for you. Unfortunately many people work in the rest of the real world, where none of that happens. And not just "small or horrible companies". I am not sure that your contribution is helpful in any way other than to suggest you have very little awareness about the employment of very many people in the UK, for whom this is a perpetual problem.

She knows! She's asking if she takes 5 days dependent leave because her child is sick, and then 5 days sick leave if she is sick, can she be disciplined for taking 10 days leave.

Sorry for confusion I meant could any dependent leave i take for my child and any sick leave I take (for myself) be used together for disciplinary?

eh? sick leave is for when you are ill and cannot work, nothing else.

Shocking. Honestly these sort of companies are places I could never work. I'd see this as an opportunity to look elsewhere. I can't imagine a manager ever asking me if I going to go back to work after picking up a vomiting child. Fucking hell where is the humanity in this world sometimes.

Ok I didn’t say you did, I was just trying to give a full answer.

Might be just a language issue - sick leave is for when you are sick, taking it for an ill child could be gross misconduct. This would be compassionate/emergency/parental leave and unpaid, or you take AL for it.

God you people must work for really tight companies!! Most companies (big corporates that I work for) offer 5-10 days PAID leave for dependent emergencies. They'd also let us use annual leave if we ran out of those days or even PAID compassionate leave if the child was in hospital for example. I'd hate to work somewhere that acts like this! Must be really small or horrible companies that do this.

all about dependant's leave

https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants

Our school requires 48 hrs since last episode of D&V before being allowed back in school.

I doubt you could be disciplined for looking after a sick dependant. If you think your new employers are going to be difficult then join a union for support.
Employers need to understand that parents cannot send children with v & d to school and not everyone has family able to help.