What will your work do if work places are open but schools aren’t?

[gingajewel]

Just wondering if work places re-open and schools don’t what you’re work place will suggest? Do you work somewhere where you will be able to continue to wfh for a few weeks? Will you have to take parental leave or annual leave?
I have no clue about my employers, currently wfh but I don’t think they are too keen on it!

2/3 of the work force don't need childcare apparently so I guess it'll be WFH or get the chop

They can’t make a person redundant though it’s the role, so if they still need the role then this wouldn’t be an option? Where have you seen 2/3? That seems high to me!

Schools will be opening soon, all the signs point to it, even if it is a partial re-opening they will be in from June 1st.

@gingajewel - they don't have to make you redundant if you can't come into work they'll just sack you.

@chriskeller61 on what grounds though? You can have parental leave? So how could they just sack you? For what?!
I think 1st June for schools also!

That is scary.AF

What they’re already doing, since we’re all working from home now anyway, luckily. Put up with the occasional toddler joining a zoom meeting.

worries me too, also school holiday childcare. I am a lone parent, a severely disabled child and an employer who is not keen on wfh but agreed to it for the duration of the lockdown only and made it clear everyone is expected back once the lockdown is lifted.

I guess I will have to go on benefits then.

We were told we can work from home if we don’t feel comfortable coming in. But our work can be done entirely remotely.

@HatRack they can’t just sack you!! There would be millions of people going to employment tribunal for unfair dismissal, it’s discrimination!!
@Tulipstulips I think my work may let us wfh if we have children till they can go back to school! If not I will use parental leave and hopefully the lag between going back to work and schools starting won’t be too long!

What they’re already doing, since we’re all working from home now anyway, luckily. Put up with the occasional toddler joining a zoom meeting

My employer is very clear WFH is for the lockdown only. I cannot imagine I am the only one working for a very inflexible company. I think a lot of parents (probably mainly mums) will be forced out of the workplace.

Where has 1 June come from?
DD is a Teacher and Head of Department, she isn’t expecting them to be fully open till September.

We have a childminder who can take the children as much as we need.

However,my workplace (university) will definitely not be open until at least September so we should be ok.

Our employer is being pretty good at allowing flexible working and parental leave. If this went on for too much longer I imagine their generous parental leave policy would eventually morph into one of encouraging taking annual leave instead, and then unpaid parental leave.

I'd like to think they'd have a bit of empathy tbh , they may welcome not having to pay you full time so unpaid leave for example or if you could work part time .
Honestly if they insist I come back full time and I can't then what option do I have . I'll have to leave .

Continue to WFH. We have a time code we can use to top up our hours if we don't manage our full day's hours, it's essentially paid special leave. That'll continue until we can return to work, I think we'll be able to WFH for as long as the virus is an issue one way or another I suspect we'll be WFH long after other organisations are back. Our organisation was well equipped for home working to be fair.

Less than2 years service they can sack you with no reason. More than that they can say that you aren't fulfilling the needs of the business. As crap as it is.

Most places have a max number of days parental leave a year (I'm Nhs and it's capped at 5) and we are not permitting unpaid leave either.

I am so lucky my employer will be happy for me to WFH until things are back to normal. I do a job that can be as easily done from home though, and DH normally WFH anyway.

2/3 seems really low if you count both parents though. That’s 1/2 straight off.
Then all people who haven’t had children yet and everyone whose youngest child is say 12 or above. Might have missed something though.

Let’s just hope there isn’t a massive gap between been told that “work from home where you can” ends and schools go back!!
@GenderApostate19 no official dates just my personal belief, but who knows!
@dairyfairies yep mine is for lockdown too! I don’t think my work are liking us wfh at all! I have had a quick look through the family friendly policies to see what parental/dependency leave I can have if I need it!

Under 2 years they can sack you for anything can’t they ?
How is it discrimination ... your job involves you being in your work place, it’s not the employers issue if you can’t come in.
Just being devils advocate

You would hope most would have empathy in the current situation, but if after any legal intitlements like parental leave are taken you then dont go to work they could in theory sack you, you sign a contact to go to work if you then can't for whatever reason then thats not the employers fault.

@Ginfilledcats unless it is for a discrimatory reason then you can claim unfair dismissal!
I don’t know what the answer is by the way just looking for different opinions!
I genuinely don’t know what I will do, my work place is very inflexible and likes us to be there! I am classed as a key worker so I think that of work goes back and schools aren’t my children can potentially return to school!

They cannot just sack you

Well in many cases they can. If you’ve been there less than two years.
If your on a zero hour contract, just not give you work.
If they refuse parental leave or unpaid leave or you use all your entitlement you could be disciplined for being AWOL leading to sacking.

@dairyfairies my DH is working from home too and his company is being much less flexible - it’s a male dominated industry and only two people in his large team have primary school aged children. My industry is dominated by women, a great many of whom are aged 25-45ish and have youngish children. If they fired us all, there would be no-one to do the work! It’s actually a very ‘woke’ and family-friendly company, I know how lucky I am!