whats the law when you have to phone in your work quite often cos your scool age kids are sick?

[ssd]

does anyone know?

Generally you take it as unpaid leave or holiday

AFAIK you don't have a RIGHT to ring in the morning and say you aren't turning up that day, though - although most employers are understanding

Someone else will come along with more info shortly

I think you're allowed 11 days off for emergency "parental" Leave but they're unpaid.

Somebody will probably come along who knows what they're talking about in a minute

here is some info

No right to take time off for emergencies, but most companies allow a 'reasonable' amount of time off for such situations. The difficulty comes when trying to define 'reasonable'.

This site gives details of your rights for emergency care. Apparently you only have the right to enough time off to take the child to the doctor and/or 'arrange for their care' - 'you?ll need to make other arrangements' if you need time off to look after them yourself Parental leave only applies up to the child's fifth birthday, so won't cover most children at school.

but what if there's no-one else to look after them but you and they can't go to school

Is your company causing you problems?

i phone in sick.

no mp, but want to go back to working days but worry about who'll look after the kids if they're home from school?

Most people do a mix of taking annual leave and getting your DH to take annual leave

Annual leave. Dh and I took a day each with the first round of illness after I got back to work, but I had to take two days off second time round because dh had just had a week off. So I'm in credit at the moment!

IME for anything short of suspected meningitis you still send your children into school/nursery and wait for them to phone you to ask you to take your child home, by which time you will hopefully have done your essential work.

Certain employers are also open to letting you work a couple of half days whilst your dh does the same in order to provide cover, but they don't strictly have to do this.

That's true Ladymuck

Unless mine are actually floppy then I shove them through the nursery door and run away

We get letters home from school every term indicating that some boys are going straight to sickbay after registration, but many of the parents are self-employed, so don't get paid if they don't work.

MMMMmmmmmm!

TBH these last answers sit uneasily with me. I'm childminding at the moment and am sick of poorly kids being left with me when they should be at home.

Don't know the answer to this one.......

I hate this situation. DH and I work in the same place so it's really obvious if we take it in turns to look after ds when he's poorly. And our employer's very unsympathetic/unsupportive - basically, we shouldn't take time off if ds is sick and that's that. But like you ssd we don't have anyone else to look after him. And although our employer is very clear that we shouldn't look after him, no-one seems to be able to tell us who should

exactly, if parents can't do it who can?

If your child is under 5 you have a legal right to a certain amount of UNPAID days off.

but I'm talking about school age kids

And even for the under5s the rules aren't that great. You have to take a whole week at a time, unpaid and only with your employers consent.

Time off for dependants will cover it. Its a statutory right for unpaid time off to cover a sudden or unexpected emergency or breakdown in childcare arrangements. It allows reasonable time off to make alternative arrangements for the care.

The legislation doesn't specify a set time as each case will be on its own merits however it states 'usually 1 or 2 days' will be classed as reasonable. Following that an employer would usually look to offer unpaid leave or use holiday or if strict/mean count it as unauthorised time off.

There are no limits on how many occasions of TOFD a person can have. You MUST though follow the company absence reporting, usually make contact asap, notifiy how long you anticipate you will be off for, keep them informed if things change etc (check your company policy). That will comply with your side of the bargain under the legislation.

There was a case where a woman was sacked after 17 different occasions over about 2yrs (can't remember name right now) and she won the case as she had followed all the reporting procedures to the letter and she couldn't have done anymore (her child also had a condition that her employer knew about that made it difficult for her to get other care).

My company allows 2 days then anything after will count as an absence against them (we have a policy that uses occasions of absence for disciplinary stages) but each case has to be considered on its own merits.

We do a combination of me taking holiday or DH "working at home", but only if it is convenient for him. Not a great balance but there you go. Have had to take today off with DD. I am guilty of doing my best to avoid them having time off though.

The problem with the Time off for dependents is that it does only allow 1-2 days so if your kid gets chicken pox or something you're still stuffed.

also the "making alternate arrangements" would be impossible if its just you and dh

must be a big struggle for lots of parents

We take turns calling in for unplanned "holiday". I've never had a problem with it.

But, if you are childminding, I suppose it is up to you. I guess you could call the parents and say, look my kid is sick today and it's up to you whether you want to send your here because he/she will probably be exposed to X. Of course, if they choose not to come then they probably shouldn't be billed.