Time off due to family illness

[OwedToAutumn]

DH and I run a small business. We have two staff, both women with children. We always try to be as flexible as possible with them, eg, we allow changes in working hours over the school holidays, to help assist with childcare. We have children ourselves, and understand that flexibility is needed.

However, one of our staff is regularly off, because one or other of her children are ill. These illnesses are coughs and colds or tummy bugs - the children are otherwise healthy. We do not pay for these absences. It is not possible for her to work from home. Her DH does not take time off his work due to these illnesses, as far as I know.

I know that the law says that we must give reasonable time off for family emergencies. Does anyone have experience of what "reasonable time" is? Can we speak to her about how disruptive this is, or do we just have to put up with it?

I am sympathetic to her - I'm not some hard hearted Cruella de Ville - but this is really difficult for us, and any advice about where we stand would be very welcome.

Parents can have time off in order to arrange for alternative childcare which means if your child is ill and cant go to school/nursery then the parent should be allowed the time to sort out a childminder or emergency nanny or whatever in order to return to the workplace. A parent does not have the right to take time off to look after the children themselves.

You need to explain to her that this is the legal standing and she needs to work out what she is going to do to cover the times when her children are poorly because she cannot keep taking the time off. You should also point out that in a 2-parent household it is not fair on you to have her being the only person taking time off when the children are ill. Tell her to work out a plan that will cover all these future bouts of illness and that if she continues to do this you will need to start recording these times with a view to taking further action which may include disciplinary action.

How strongly you talk to her should depend on how often she is doing this - is it more than 1 in 10 of her normal working days, for example? Or more like 1 in 20?

Thank you so much, StillSquiffy. I will have to analyse the time off, as I'm not sure. I would say it is closer to 1 in 10 than 1 in 20, although sometimes she takes it off her holiday entitlement. (I know she's not strictly entitled to do this, but as I said, we do try to be flexible.) Also, she is sometimes sick herself, obviously, and this is a different matter.

We do not lose out financially, but the disruption to our work makes these absences very difficult. And clients are just not interested to know that we haven't done their work because this person's children have been ill!

A lot of parents really do think that it's perfectly OK to take the time off and it doesn't occur to them that they need to take responsibility for arranging a 'plan B', so this happens quite often. Tread carefully as her first reaction might be a bit huffy. Emphasise that you can see her point of view but that also it is a business that needs to look after clients and she needs to see their point of view, too. Lots of parents don't realise that Emergency CM's exist who might be able to help out, if they don't have extended family or other support nearby.

Once again, thank you.

I think I need to get a bit of analysis done on how often it is, and then have a chat with her. I know what you mean about "huffy". The thing is, she's always very apologetic, but it's just getting too much!

I really appreciate your responses, as I thought I'd just be flamed for being a hard hearted bitch, who didn't care about my employee's sick children!

You have been given good advice here. I am also a small business owner though a bit bigger than you I employ 17 people. I recently chose to pay for HR support it was the very best thing I could have done 24/7 telephone line to answer these questions contracts and handbook all up to date and correct. I think there are MN who offer this service.
It is very easy as a small business to get too involved and then end up bending over backwards for employees. This will have been costing you money be it you working longer hours to cover this person or clients not returning because you did not make the deadline.