Can a company hastily rewrite a policy so you can't claim on it?

[corygal]

Last month my dad nearly died and I took four days off work to sit with him in hospital. My company has a compassionate leave policy, whereby the last person who took CL for serious illness for a dependant had two weeks off paid (mum died), then a new employee on probation (wife went in to labour early) took two days? leave, also paid.

When I called in to the office, I was told that I would only be paid for two days and the rest of my time off would be unpaid. I checked the compassionate leave policy but it did not state whether the leave was paid or not ? although the implication was that it would be.

On return to work I noticed that the compassionate leave policy had been rewritten to state any pay for emergencies was ?discretionary from the MD?.

The new policy also says: ?The company may ask you to provide proof of the emergency?.

Is this legal? I know dependants? emergency leave is unpaid unless your own firm?s policy states otherwise, but what?s the position on paying some employees then hastily rewriting the policy to avoid paying others?

Can't really help but when exactly was it rewritten?

I came back to work on 10 Jan - the policy was rewritten by the 13th.

the policy that applies is the policy that was in place at the time you took the leave.

the rewriting is just proof that at the time you took the leave it wasn't necessarily discretionary from the MD and you didn't need proof

If policy was re-written AFTER your time off then they would have to pay you because they paid the others and have thus 'established precedent' (this is the exact term to use when discussing it with them).

Changing a policy in this way is common enough. They are supposed to consult with employees when they do this but in reality unless there is a material change (which this would not be) then there's nothing that can be done about such changes. But you can't impose the change retrospectively.

Sounds a bit naughty - I should bump this later when the "legal" MNetters are home from work. If you think about it your time off happened before the policy was rewritten so the old policy would still be in force surely?

The policy that was in place when you had your time off is the one that stands.

Thanks so much! Can a company really ask for 'proof' of an emergency? I thought not.

if the emergency is your dad's illness, no you can't provide details of his medical records to your work that would be a breach of your dad's confidentiality!

Thanks so much - so how should I approach the request to be paid for the time? Payroll docked my wages last month, so I'd need to ask for repayment.

If the old policy didn't specify if it was paid or not and you didn't check before you asked for compassionate leave, you can't insist on being paid for it, though.

Sorry, hairy but I disagree. If they interpreted the policy historically in a certain way then they have established precedent, otherwise the OP is being treated unfairly relative to her colleagues...

Agree with StillSquiffy. If the employer has consistently paid compassionate leave previously they must continue to do so until they publish the new policy.

The old policy should apply, but if the old policy doesn't state whether or not the leave is paid, and the new policy says pay will be discretionary, I can't see that's awfully different tbh other than being more specific.

Anyway, as others have said, regardless of what the policy says, if the company consistently pays x amount of days compassionate leave, that's what's important.

All the information we have from the OP is that one person got 2 days paid, the same as her, so that's fine, and one other person got longer for what turned out to be a bereavement rather than just illness.

So at the moment there's only one getting longer for arguably different circumstances (nothing to indicate it wasn't going to be at least partly holiday until it became a bereavement, for example), and on its own I wouldn't say that establishes enough of a precedent to mean more than 2 days compassionate leave for family illness is contractual by custom and practice.

Are there lots more examples OP?

Hello all - no, there aren't lots more examples that I can find in this company. But there is another factor.

One of the junior staff is taking an awful lot of odd sick days, which he has been tackled about by HR. The week I asked for compassionate leave, he disappeared to look after an aunt with a stroke. So you can see there might be other 'issues around this'.

I have this - I didn't get CL for my dd but another girls in the office got paid CL for her dog dieing, I didn't mind

But it is pants when one does and one doesn't

I made up the time or took anuual leave

The problem arises for my manager as I had soem time for snow - not CL but I said I wanted it unpaid and I would pay my pension, Otherwise upaid leave makes my serive and pension differnet - so my manager has to do a lot of faffing about to make sure he takes money from me to pay the unpaid pension for the unpaid leaves dates.

So word of warning - two days unpaid leave - make sure and doubly sure you pay your own pension for these days if you havea comapany pension as in years to come those two days could make a differnece

The fact that someone is having a lot of days off sick doesn't help you. That is a separate issue.

You need to show that the company has consistently paid compassionate leave in similar situations in the past. If it has not done so and the old policy does not clearly state that compassionate leave will be paid I'm afraid you haven't got a leg to stand on.

I agree I can't see any reason for someone else's sickness record to be relevant to a decision how much compassionate leave to pay you.