Can my boss sack me because I have no childcare for 4 days?

[jemjelly]

My MIL usually looks after my 3 year old Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday while I'm at work. She has the flu so cannot help this week and she was ill last Wednesday so I had 1 day off last week and will need 3 days off this week. Lat Wednesday I had as holiday, this week nwill be unpaid leave.

I've just spoken to my boss and explained the situation and he said we must discuss this in a meeting tomorrow and I "need to look at the bigger picture" I have a feeling he's going to sack me, can he do this? I've worked for him for 11 years and used to be full time, he's never been very happy about me changing to part time when I had my daughter and regularly complains whenever i have a day off even if its booked (planned) annual leave as we are very busy and theres no cover when I;m away.

If I do loose my job will I be able to claim unemployment benefits, my husband works full time but he doesn't earn very much and we would never be able to manage on his money alone.

Hope someone can give me some advice, I need to know my rights.

You are entitled to emergency unpaid time off to care for children, but this is usually to allow you to arrange other care for them.

Can your DH not share the load and take some time off? He is as entitled to this as you are.

I don't think he can sack you for this, but he would be within his rights to expect you to have a back up plan in place to cover now.

I am sure he won't and can't sack you, but you must see how unsatisfactory this situation is for your employer surely?

I think you need to make slightly more robust childcare arrangements tbh.

Any would agree with Catsmamma - you probably need to look at your childcare again.

Any? AND

He cannot sack you for taking emergency leave in order to arrange for care for a child. He can theoretically sack you for taking time off because your childcare has fallen through and you are doing it all yourself and not arranging alternative childcare.

In practice this means you are expected to take the first day or two off (unpaid) but in that time you are expected to make arrangements for further days off (ie getting in an emergency nanny). If you don't have alternative arrangements and are simply planning to take time off at little notice every time your normal childcare falls through you are asking for trouble. Whilst it is very simplistic to expect all mums to have a plan B for when this happens, it is also simplistic to expect all companies to be flexible enough to handle sudden absences without it being a detriment to their business.

Even with a child in nursery you need to plan for times when the child is ill and needs care. With carer and other carers the risk is the same - even if they care for a sick child, they themselves can be ill.

The first port of call should be your DH - regardless of level of earnings and wages lost, you need to share this emergency care out if you need to keep both jobs. Then you should ring round local childminders and see if they can help out in emergencies. Your boss is in his rights to expect you to do this.

Yeah I do see its not a great arangement but theres no one else who can help out at the moment as my mum (who used to be my back up childcare had a stroke a few weeks ago so she's not well enough to help).

My husband is on a shortlist for redundancy so he's worried about asking for time off at the moment.

I don't know what to do. Is it possible to pay for emergency childcare for a few days? I've rang a few childminders but no one can offer me any childcare on such short notice.

If it's been 4days then your dh should have looked after them for 2 of the days then you wouldn't be in as much bother at work.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but whether there is no one else to help or not isn't really your employer's problem.

He's agreed to allow you some time off to arrange alternative childcare - the key thing here is alternative childcare, not to allow you time off to do it whilst you're supposed to be at work. It's harsh, but when you're running a business, it's hard to plan at the best of times without an employee essentially, saying what you are: "I want unplanned, last minute time off to care for dependants, since there's no one else able to have them".

Absolutely unacceptable - whether your DH is at risk of redundancy or not, he should be taking a fair share of the emergency childcare duties. Otherwise you're going to end up with him facing redundancy and you facing the sack!

Can you not rope in a friend, relative, neighbour - anyone - to childmind for a few days more? You only work 3 days a week - can you promise the return of this favour if it'll win you some leeway?

What has been your Plan B for emergency childcare in the past?

I honestly can't believe that some working parents don't have proper Plan Bs in place to deal with this (not particularly unexpected) set of events... I assume most people would have thought all this through at length before any part time / flexitime request was asked for/ granted.

Just read your later comments about your mum being your Plan B but that due to her health issues she's not available.

I think you need to look at paid, professional childcare services in your local area - agree with Catsmamma in that it's the robustness of your childcare arrangements that seems to have led into this situation.

They'll be costly but you can buy cover short emergency cover from nannies etc. Google nanny agency and your area. I am guessing most childminders will be fully booked with their kids.

Good luck.

Don't think you'll get the sack but in letting this run on you would start to look very unprofessional. I would seriously consider looking at preschool / nursery options. Yes it costs but they are a reliable form of childcare. You then become a visibly reliable employee.

Your husband needs to do his fair share, and it's perfectly reasonable for your boss to be put out that between you and your husband you've decided that your employer must take the brunt.

But you also need back-up childcare.

It's perfectly possible to book an emergency nanny for this type of thing. I think Sitters.co.uk do emergency daytime childcare as well as evening babysitting, for example, or any nanny agency probably would as well.

Are you sure that there is nobody else you could ask, even for a day? I would happily look after an extra 3yr old if my friend was really stuck, and have been on the receiving end of favours when I have been stuck.

Is your dd in nursery at all, (15hrs?) could you ask anyone there to help? Extra hours there or one of the staff to babysit?

it's perfectly reasonable for your boss to be put out that between you and your husband you've decided that your employer must take the brunt

I think that's actually what would irk most employers most - not the fact that an employee has needed to take an unknown amount of unplanned time off, but that if they're doing 100% of the emergency childcare you've essentially signalled to them that they are relatively low down on the household priority list.

Yes, we all work to live, and some of us live to work - it's true - but most employers want loyal employees, and signalling to them that they're much less important than a whole list of your other obligations (including your husband's employer!) ... well, it doesn't send a professional message. At least not one that I'd want to send as a longterm employee.

Speaking from an employers perspective, we have been through this a number of times with our staff. We understand completely about childcare issues, we are human after all, however, as commented above, this understanding only goes so far. The smaller the business, the more important you are as an employee, the smaller the business, the less capacity they have for lengthy absences. From a legal standpoint, every person has a right to unpaid leave in case of an emergency with childcare. Speaking personally, if someone couldn't come in for a day or two, then that's fine with me, but when that day or two stretches into three, four, or a week or more, then conversations have to be had. We've had to take a harder line with one member staff, who repeatedly wanted to change their hours, as and when they hit obstacles with childcare. You can request a change in hours, but you're not legally entitled to this, its down to the business to decide on whether they can accommodate your request. You can only request a change in your hours once a year.

As you work part-time, can you say that you will make up the time? Is your work time-sensitive? Could you do extra days next week or the week after when MIL is better? Can she cover some extra days for you?

Could your DH take planned annual leave to let you make up the time?

The OP’s childcare crisis was in December 2011. I think she’s probably reached some kind of resolution by now...

Well you never know...

I had this pop up for some reason, I didn't check the date. Sorry :S