pay docked for staying at home with ill child

[plainwhitet]

Does anyone know whether this is generally the case? I will be checking our employment policy and contacting our union, but essentially one of my colleagues has been told she will forfeit her pay when she stays at home to look after her one year old (normally at a child minder) who has chicken pox. We her colleagues are shocked, this "policy" is brand new and as far as we know, unofficial. Also a colleague was recently told she would be docked pay for time out taking her husband to hospital for oncology appointments.
We are on proper employment contracts, not piece workers/paid by the hour etc. Any views welcome before I take this further!!

public sector here - kids ill we dont get paid for time off to care for them - we use holidays end off. I get paid if i am sick so sometimes i actually just ring in sick myself - when my dd was ill and it was hospitalised long term sick the doc signed me off with anxiety as i was anxious so it was fair dincum.

At my place you have to take AL if your child is ill and unpaid leave if you choose not to use your AL.

I do waver on the side of the employers here - why should they pay you for a days work if you are not in?

Try being a teacher, we can't take annual leave if our child is sick! Mine have been trained to only be ill during the school holidays

i wondered that about teachers as my dds teacher os often off and my dd says her toddler has a sickness bug/ chicken pox etc... she must have alot of unpaid leave.

IMO any dependency leave has to have a wide remit i.e. taking the cat to the vet - it will just be deemed and used as extra holiday though, so employers would just have to cut the annual leave to the statutory minimum.

OP
You haven't come back.

What is your view now?

I was really surprised that you are your colleagues where shocked that you weren't going to be paid for not working.

My DH works for a small business. When I was twice rushed to hospital with complications of pregnancy overnight he was allowed to make up the hours first time and then took half day holiday second time, He is known as hard working and flexible and they were flexible back.

I had a day off with a sick child the other week, and was paid for it. I am a teacher. I can't take holiday when a child is ill. Whether I am paid is at the discretion of my Head. I have never not been paid, but I have only ever had the odd day here and there off. DH (private sector) usually "works from home" .

I always save a few days of my holiday entitlement in case of sickness. If I don't use them all I get a longer Xmas holiday at the end of the year!!

Over 20 years ago I was working in the IT dept of a bank. Good conditions - 35 hour week, double time paid with mileage + meals for weekend working, 6 weeks hols, non contributory pension. However, when dh had urgent hosp appts because he was in danger of going blind, and had dilating drops in his eyes so was forbidden to drive afterwards, I either had to take leave, or make up the time.

I thought it a bit mean as he was not able to get home on his own. The rules were the rules, and I followed them.

However, I do remember an admin clerk refused compassionate leave when her gm died - who had brought her up. She went to her gp and got a week's sick note.

If I do not turn up for work because I am sick or because DC or DH are sick then I don't get paid.
If I need time off at short notice to look after a sick child I can usually use my holiday entitlement.
Which seems fair to me. I work in a private day nursery and the profit margin is very narrow.
DH, on the other hand works for a huge multi-national and gets up to 6 months paid sick leave and paid compassionate leave too. Which seems very generous to me but our nursery would go under very quickly if we were paid full pay for being off sick for 6 months of the year.

Public sector here - absolutely no dependency leave anywhere in outr contracts. Have to use AL when the kids are ill, however sometimes this is not allowed and people have to take unpaid leave.

If I have had to turn down AL requests because a day/week is oversubscribed I can't allow anyone else to come along later and take AL because their child is ill. Secondly if the staff are on strike then all AL may be cancelled, if peoples children are ill, or their teachers are on strike then again unpaid leave.

I'm in the public sector and cannot use annual leave for this (teaching) and we have to take the days as unpaid, wouldn't expect it any other way honestly.