Industrial action by teachers in England and Wales has been announced and has the potential to cause disruption for employees and businesses alike as some employees may experience childcare difficulties as a result of school closures.
Being prepared can help businesses to reduce disruption and support employees. Here are three things your business needs to know.
When are the strikes happening?
Strikes are due to take place in February and March and will affect 23,400 schools in England and Wales. National strike days will be 1st February, 15th and 16th March with other one day regional strikes taking place.
What if an employee can’t attend work due to a school closure?
Bear in mind employees have the statutory right to a reasonable period of necessary unpaid time off for dependents – ‘the right to dependent care leave’.
This applies in a number of scenarios including where an employee needs to take time off work because of unexpected disruption to the care arrangements for a dependent, such as a child.
This can apply in the scenario of a school closure.
Have you not dealt with dependent care leave before? Here’s some of the basics you need to know:
- It is a day one right – employees do not have to have worked for you for any particular length of time to be entitled to take dependent care leave
- Dependent care leave is usually unpaid, although you should check your contracts of employment and past practice to see if you have given your employees a right to pay for such time off
- Employees are protected from being dismissed or subjected to a detriment for taking dependent care leave
Less commonly, an employee may make a request to take parental leave to cover childcare gaps caused by the strike.
There are qualifying requirements that need to be met for an employee to be entitled to take this, rules about how much notice they must give you and the amount of time off to be taken.
Other points to think about…
If dependent care leave for your employees is unpaid, you may find that they ask to take the time off they need as holiday instead so they don’t ‘lose out’ on pay, especially bearing in mind the current cost of living crisis.
If they have sufficient untaken holiday, this can work out well for your business too as overall it will mean that they aren’t having additional time off.
However, bear in mind that an employee should not be forced to take holiday in this situation.
Depending on your business, the employee’s role and the particular circumstances involved other ways of minimising disruption to the business and supporting your employees could include permitting working from home or possibly agreeing adjusted working times for that day.
Before acting, get in touch for advice on your situation.
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