to think having New Year's Eve off is not a fair compensation for working Christmas Day

[Vintagejazz]

Once again my SIL will not be able to join us for Christmas day because she ends up working on this day every year. Her crime? She doesn't have children and so the managers in the organisation for which she works have deemed it fair that those with young children get Christmas Eve and Day off so they can be with their children, and those without get New Year's Eve and Day off so they can go out and celebrate.
My SIL is 45 and does not have any desire to spend NYE out clubbing and pubbing and getting home at 5am. However, she would like to be able to spend Christmas Day with her parents, nieces and nephews, significant other etc. as she has worked on this day for the past 3 years.

AIBU to think this is a rubbish arrangement and to have suggested she and others in a similar position approach management and outline the unfairness of the arrangement and ask that it be reviewed?

Christmas Day can be 'shifted' for children especially if you work either Christmas Eve or day or Boxing Day when the shift only needs to be 24 hours. Many European cultures value Christmas Eve more highly for children anyway (the Dutch get presents on a different day entirely and of course there are other faiths....)

What is more difficult to shift is the day families living some distance apart come together. This does tend to be Christmas Day as more people get this day off. So by prioritising families you are allowing them to have a celebration on the 25th as opposed to 24th or 26th. However, childless couple are then condemned to miss out on Christmas celebrations completely as they are more likely to celebrate with extended family or friends. On this basis it would seem fairer to offer Christmas priority to childless individuals!

My friend works in the health service. They work 12 hours shifts. Usually, the manager asks for people to volunteer to work Christmas Day (Christmas eve is seen as a standard working day/night). If they can't get enough volunteers, they put names in a hat and draw up the remainder of the rota as the names are picked out. If you are working Christmas Day/night, you get New Years off. Some people like working Christmas Day either because they get bh pay or to avoid being alone or avoid spending it at home. If your sil is unhappy with the arrangement, I suggest she speak to her managers and voice that she would like a change in the way they do the Christmas rota.

*Phaedra you have stated that the OPs SIL "is being discriminated against"

Which protected characteristic does she have that constitutes discrimination?*

What protected characteristics do parents have to demand priority. I gave you a list of examples where this could be discriminatory and it could well be a breach of contract in that this employee is not being treated fairly and expected to carry out duties for no good reason other than to pander to other selfish employees.

Altinkum anyone who takes on a job which requires 24/7 cover but then refuses to do their fair share of the unpopular shifts because they are special because they have a family is selfish.

Do you really think you deserve to have Christmas off more than any one else? Or that the friends or family of co-workers who have to work to allow you this special time off are less entitled than you?

YANBU. Everyone's private life is entitled to the same respect. That includes the people with no dependent family or no family at all. Being rostered for CD two years running in the same job should be out even if it means someone with children having to do it.

Since people without dependents are likely to be older than average and male I see a whiff of indirect discrimination here too.

Andrew you could be right. If this policy is disproportionately favouring women of a certain age bracket or even worse heterosexual women of a certain age bracket that is discriminatory.

You said that you thought it was unfair Altinkum but also that you agreed with it. Meaning you expect your childless colleagues to take up all the slack. So you expect those who have gone through the pain of infertility to never get the chance to spend Christmas Day with the closest people to our own children that we will ever have in our lives. You expect childless people to never spend the day with their friends or their families. You agree with that? How nice and compassionate of you. How about every other year you do Christmas on a different day, say the 24th or 26th like you are expecting childless people to d every year. Young children are too young to understand the difference and older children can understand. Unselfish parents manage to do it.

"What protected characteristics do parents have to demand priority"

I don't think parents should demand priority . Anyway, protected characteristics broadly entitle you to be treated no less favourably, not to preferential treatment.

You think the SIL is being discriminated against, but there is absolutely no basis for that assertion. Being childless is not a protected characteristic and there's nothing to suggest that she is being denied the opportunity to take Christmas Day off because of one of the nine protected characteristics there actually are.

There is no basis for any claim that this is indirect discrimination and is disproportionately affecting certain groups, because we know absolutely nothing about anyone involved. I think the indirect discrimination possibilities mentioned are far fetched anyway.

This is not fair, but the way to address it really really isn't to start shouting about discrimination.

I'm remembering yet again why I avoid employment threads that have been started for whatever reason in AIBU.

Statistics show that one in five women in their mid forties dont have children. By 2018 (when i will be 45) it is expected to rise to one in four. Some through choice ,some through circumstance so i can see this becoming an even bigger bone of contention in the workplace in the near future.

Thankfully I work in a place which has a compulsory closure over Christmas, because this would be miserable.

I'm single, late 20s with no children. I love and am intensely nostalgic about Christmas and put a lot into it. It's one of one of the very few times I see my family and old friends, and it's magic. New years eve is a party no different than any other, and has a tendency to get a bit maudlin and depressing in the Auld Lang Syne vein.

I moved far away from home so have about 6 hours to travel. I have lots of friends where I live, but no one whose family Christmas I could invade (there's a few who would if I asked, but it'd be like the uninvited workhouse orphan being taken in because you can't leave her out in the snow), and most of them travel away to see family anyway. If I had to work then I'd have nowhere to go for Christmas; I'd either have to spend it alone or among strangers. It would be a bag of shit.

From my perspective, working parents would probably have a family of smiling faces, a massive dinner and everything else waiting for them when they got home. They and their family would still get Christmas, and still get to be together.

I agree with Flowery that it is not discrimination. It is just really shitty and unfair.

Unfortunately most workplaces that have this crap policy also put the childless to the back of the queue when it comes to leave during school holidays. Which is really rubbish when your partner is a teacher.

I think the majority of parents are unselfish but the selfish are a loud voice. Unfortunately I've found even the most unselfish to brutally misunderstand the pain of infertility, I've been told too many times that secondary infertility is worse because I don't know what it is like to actually hold my own child and therefore can't understand the pain at never doing it again. The pain at never holding your own child ever clearly does not matter . IMO Childless people are generally dealt the shit hand. Dish out all your infertility woes at first meeting and get a mountain of faux sympathetic platitudes or forever be treated as a selfish child hater.