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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that if you take a day off to look after your sick child

127 replies

cuteboots · 14/12/2011 13:37

You shouldnt be made to take it as a days holiday? Especially as I havent got any holiday left this next year so they have taken a day off me for next year??? How does that work when it wasnt bloody holiday and I spent it cleaning up puke for most of the day!! Am I being a bit oversensitive???

OP posts:
FourThousandHoles · 15/12/2011 12:08

When I needed carer's leave (dh long term sick rather than dc's) my GP signed me off work with a sick note. I was paid for a while according to my company's sickness policy and then I was on ssp. Obviously that's not feasible for just one day. Many companies allow so many days off for such eventualities but not all can afford to, the company I work for is being squeezed by its customers and can't afford to. Therefore if I am not signed off as above then I use holiday or take unpaid leave. Parental leave has to be booked in advance and taken in blocks of a week, more useful for covering school holidays etc rather than emergency leave.

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 12:55

I have never known anyone get paid for a day off when their child is sick. Most people dont get any money when they are sick themselves so I very much doubt companies will start paying for going off for other people who are sick. It usually is dose yourself/the kids up on calpol and work through it!

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 12:57

Also at mine and DHs work even if you are hospitalised or rushed to hospital you get your pay docked for the time you left.

Clownsarescary · 15/12/2011 13:01

We get 10 days dependents' care a year. This includes childcare/spouses or anyone who depends on you for their care.

whackamole · 15/12/2011 13:06

My work make me take it unpaid whether or not I have holiday left that I would prefer to use up.

YABU.

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:12

The NHS gives you 3 PAID days pro-rata within any rolling 12 month period. All parents/carers are entitled to this so mums and dads can both contribute to caring for sick children, one area where the rules are equal!

There is a similar thing for people without dependents (could also be an elderly parent or sick disabled partner) who have a domestic emergency such as flooding, fire, burglary etc. so I think it is fair. If you have no dependents then you don't need the carers' leave, do you? As OP says, you are not off having fun, you are mopping up puke and diarrhoea, for example.

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:14

molly 'Most people dont get any money when they are sick themselves so I very much doubt companies will start paying for going off for other people who are sick. It usually is dose yourself/the kids up on calpol and work through it!'
Most people legally employed get sick pay. And schools/nurseries will not accept children who are unwell, esp. d & v. This is the UK we are talking about isn't it?

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:15

I cant believe the NHS and other companies do this. Its very lucky, and I have never heard of it before, in most jobs I know even if you keeled over and died in the middle of the shift they would probably dock your pay for not making it to the end!

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:16

Lies you oly get sick pay if you go off for days? Think its at least 3

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:16

anniemac that is a good option usually only available to management/higher grades. Also I would be unable to take any work home.

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:17

You may be able to get Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), if you have:

?been sick for at least four or more days in a row (including weekends, bank holidays and days that you do not normally work)
?average weekly earnings equal to or more than the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL)

Sorry stand corrected its 4 days

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:18

No, molly. There is no minimum time to be off sick!

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:21

lies - sorry dont know what you mean? I mean if an employee goes off for 1 or 2 days they will have their pay docked unless they take it as leave or make it up

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:21

I mean the employer just pays you, you don't have to make a claim for it. It all depends what contract you have, I suppose. In the NHS and most large companies they have policies for monitoring people's sickness absence but only look into it if it goes over a certain amount in a year. They assume everyone will be sick at some point and pay you anyway. They used to offer us an extra day's annual leave for having a 6 month period with no sickness absence, but have stopped that now.

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:27

I am saying in roles like mine where we are surrounded by illness we get sick a lot but you have to work through it (d and v is one of the only ones we cant but anything else we generally have to or we would constntly. We dont get paid so we just have to be there dosed up on whatever. We would ever be offered anything like an extra day off if you dont get sick Shock We would just have to make back the hours if we are really, really ill but if ill and still capable of moving then work through it unfortuately.

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:29

Well molly, probably your employer is not one of the top family friendly ones, or one which is best at retaining its employees! Policies like that probably encourage people to lie more and take longer sick so they can claim the SSP, so the employer will lose out in the end.

DoMeDon · 15/12/2011 13:31

It depends on who you work for. I would usually get paid special leave in an emergency and unpaid special leave if it was a longer period of sickness. I would be given option of taking it as paid holiday instead of unpaid leave too. If my employer did not offer any options I would take a sickie.

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:32

I live in a town where all companies are the same unfortuately. I have to say they encourage people never to go sick, and never leave their jobs. I work in a nursery and all the parents are in the same boat, just dose the kids/themselvies up and keep going. If d and v just pray to god you have leave left or your employer will let you make the hours bck.

NightLark · 15/12/2011 13:46

I always read these threads feeling utterly depressed at just how little people expect from their employers, and how many utterly shite employers there must be out there. It feels like any sense of a social contract between employers and staff is long gone. And that isn't a public sector higher management fantasy: the big factories in Coventry where FIL used to work all had a sense of being part of the community, not just a labour/payment trade off mechanism. There must be loads of employers out there who are just not running viable businesses, the comments on here about how they shouldn't be expected to give an inch under any circumstances. Are they really all that close to the bottom line, or have they just embraced the paradigm of owing nothing to anyone unless forced to by law?

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 13:53

I think a lot (most?) small businesses cant afford it. Say if the owner pays themselves NMW, and then all staff it costs a lot with rent, insurance, supplies etc. I would rather have a job than take the p and expect paid sick pay for my kid tbh

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 13:58

Disgusting that parents said their children to nursery sick and that the nurseries accept them. Just keeps the problem going! Private nurseries often treat their staff badly, even the one on this hospital site, as I know from several FORMER employees.

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 15/12/2011 14:01

Sorry meant send their children.
Molly, a lot of these private nursery chains are making a fortune for a few people at the top by keeping the staff on minimum wage. And you apparently think that is a good thing!

molly3478 · 15/12/2011 14:07

My nursery or nurseries in my area dont make a fortune. We dont have chains. Childcare is cheap you only get 3 pound an hour for 3 year olds of goverment, even less for funded two year olds. You have all food to make, nappies to provide, suncream, liability insurance, rent, supplies, wages etc.

hardboiledpossum · 15/12/2011 14:15

Lies- Yes private nurseries do treat their employees terribly from my experience of working in them. It makes it hard to get and keep good employees when they are treated so badly. I would never work in one again, nor would I send my children to one.

ThatVikRinA22 · 15/12/2011 14:18

we get something like 3 days per year parental leave for just this type of situation, but when i worked in the private sector its not something i ever got!