Parental leave for playgroup staff

[ponygirl]

Anyone know anything about this?

I'm treasurer for our local playgroup and staff have never been paid when they have had to take time off due to ill children. Last Wednesday, the playgroup had to close because both of the qualified playleaders had sick children at home. The question has now been raised as to whether they, and the other staff who were available to work, should be paid.

As I say, they never have before, but particularly with our status as a childcare provider, should we be providing better support to the staff in terms of parental leave?

Message withdrawn

Check out the dti website www.dti.gov.uk and search for parental leave for all the info you need. You will have to pay them and the staff who turned up for work - it wasn't their fault they couldn't IYSWIM. BTW do you not have emergency cover for sickness? we used to have a parents rota for emergencies. HTH

I don't get paid if I have to have time off with my sick children. I have to make up my hours or lose money.

The law says that parents have a right to unpaid parental leave, so its up to you if you want to pay them or not.

I'd say be very careful if you do decide to pay them, though, as you might find that some of the less reliable staff suddenly have frequently poorly children. Sorry to be cynical and hard hearted.

Your playleaders don't have the right to be paid when they take time off to look after thier own sick children. Whether you chose to or not is a different matter. I think pretty few companies pay staff for time off with sick kids - most of us take annual leave to cover it.

On the other hand, I would be pretty sure that you ought to pay the other staff who were able to work that day. In theory, you could have asked them to come in anyway and do those jobs that often need doing, e.g. cleaning the toys.

As a teacher I don't get paid if I take time off with a sick child or to attend hospital appointments etc with dd. I can take the time as unpaid

I could get away with taking it as paid leave but prefer to take it out of holiday. Causes less bad feeling.

The staff who were available to work should defo be paid!