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Not turning up because of childcare


Lloyd90
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Asking this for a friend of mine who runs a home with a big council. 

Quite often a female member of staff there phones up and says they can’t get childcare so they aren’t coming in. 

It’s starting to get abused now (just like the good old council sickness policy) and as the staff member gets paid the same anyways she just cracks on doing it. Probably ATLEAST 1-2 Times a month. 

Now I know employers have to support parents with children and make reasonable adjustments, just wondering what people think. Is a “reasonable adjustment” someone phoning up fairly short notice and just saying they’re not even coming in reasonable? Cos for me I would say no. 

 

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Send it to HR. 

 

Childcare is always available but not necessarily cheaply, unless the demand is due to a huge loss of other care in which case extra availability may be exhausted. The only times i have had colleagues encounter such problems is with sudden school closures due to severe weather in which case one parent did the morning and the other did the afternoon.

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Generally speaking the failure to organise reliable childcare does not come under the "time off for family emergencies" right that employees have. 

By the way, the time off under this can also be unpaid. 

Councils and many other public sector bodies become victims of their own policy and if they are going to give her the time off paid then they only have themselves to blame really. 

As others have said, get HR to step in, it's their policy after all. 

 

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10 hours ago, Wb123 said:

Send it to HR. 

 

Childcare is always available but not necessarily cheaply, unless the demand is due to a huge loss of other care in which case extra availability may be exhausted. The only times i have had colleagues encounter such problems is with sudden school closures due to severe weather in which case one parent did the morning and the other did the afternoon.

I would have to disagree, We have no other options, friends work same  hours, mum is 20 mins away and 87/infirm. My wife can work from home so it's not bad for us and her boss is very understanding. I agree that there are those who take the mickey as well.

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5 minutes ago, keg said:

I would have to disagree, We have no other options, friends work same  hours, mum is 20 mins away and 87/infirm. My wife can work from home so it's not bad for us and her boss is very understanding. I agree that there are those who take the mickey as well.

Fair doos, around here last minute childcare is available but means paying £250 a day, significantly more at weekends or nights. When i worked in Yorkshire similar availability seemed to exist (to be fair in Leeds). For colleagues who have had to use it it is not cost effective but has a role in stopping ones career going down the pan for having kids.

 

 

Edited by Wb123
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In my experience Departmental Council HR will do as they are bid by departmental management! They are merely a management tool, and usually, when dealing with perceived "unacceptable" employee behaviour, because their advice is not unbiased, the employer then falls foul of equal ops/employment legislation, and in consequence the Council are often unable to defend their position at any subsequent appeal.

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I have to say that both my wife and i work full time as many people have to these days and childcare is very difficult and expensive, we generally have reliable childcare but sometimes you do get let down. When this happens I believe that your child must come first and either my wife or I will take holiday leave or unpaid leave to fill in the short fall.

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I work for a Council and am allowed to either make up the time missed or work from home if childcare is needed. All my hours worked for the week still need to tally up whatever I do. Organising something last minute is so expensive and stressful I simply don’t bother. I’ve had a couple of important conference calls with my 3 year old son audibly squeezing out a poo right next to me (clients heard but laughed it off), but generally manage ok. It helps having a desk job otherwise it’s not really practical or possible to work remotely.

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The employer needs to do something. At the moment - one person. If it is acceptable for that one, what happens if all employees do the same? Unpaid leave at best. If their childcare has let them down, presumably that won't be paying for it, so they have a net gain for staying off work.

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2 hours ago, Ian North Wales said:

I have to say that both my wife and i work full time as many people have to these days and childcare is very difficult and expensive, we generally have reliable childcare but sometimes you do get let down. When this happens I believe that your child must come first and either my wife or I will take holiday leave or unpaid leave to fill in the short fall.

I totally agree, but the OP says it has become habitual!

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If a Council are involved he's knackered, the policy most follow relating to pregnant/mothers is so uber PC they could email pictures from Barbados directly to the head of HR when they were supposed to be having 'child care issues' and theres sweet FA they could do about it. Lost count of the number of times me and other childless people in our office have had to pick up the slack/rearrange our plans because of the child care card being played.

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I imagine most replies are from older persons who's children are grown up or folk without children yet, let's say your kids are in nursery and school as mine are, nursery can quite easily send your kid home for having a bad cough, we've had this happen once, or if they are sick feeling ill or have the runs.

less likely to happen with older children but it doesn't take much with younger ones. There is probably an sop in place especially at a council run place, best that us likely to happen is she will hit a trigger point and HR will have a word but I doubt very much it will go any further.

This is why my misses hasn't gone back to work yet, not worth the cost and hassle but not everyone is in this position.

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1 hour ago, Mice! said:

I imagine most replies are from older persons who's children are grown up or folk without children yet, let's say your kids are in nursery and school as mine are, nursery can quite easily send your kid home for having a bad cough, we've had this happen once, or if they are sick feeling ill or have the runs.

less likely to happen with older children but it doesn't take much with younger ones. There is probably an sop in place especially at a council run place, best that us likely to happen is she will hit a trigger point and HR will have a word but I doubt very much it will go any further.

This is why my misses hasn't gone back to work yet, not worth the cost and hassle but not everyone is in this position.

 

That's one of the decisions you have to make when deciding to start a family though, how you will deal with unexpected issues. It's not fair to expect others to pick up the workload or a company to suffer and take the hit.

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1 hour ago, Mice! said:

I imagine most replies are from older persons who's children are grown up or folk without children yet, let's say your kids are in nursery and school as mine are, nursery can quite easily send your kid home for having a bad cough, we've had this happen once, or if they are sick feeling ill or have the runs.

less likely to happen with older children but it doesn't take much with younger ones. There is probably an sop in place especially at a council run place, best that us likely to happen is she will hit a trigger point and HR will have a word but I doubt very much it will go any further.

This is why my misses hasn't gone back to work yet, not worth the cost and hassle but not everyone is in this position.

The law is to allow an unpaid 'out' for genuine emergencies. In my book that's a handful of times a year tops. 

I see this all the time when people literally take time off every week because there is some issue or other with childcare because they haven't been bothered or don't want to pay for it, but want the extra salary coming in. 

I know some families genuinely have to have both parents working, but for others it's a lifestyle choice that pays for the new motors and the foreign trips. 

ED: and don't get me started on the poor put-upon grandparents. My mum's neighbour (at over 70) used to travel about 15 miles on two separate buses to go into town to babysit for her daughter's kids while the daughter worked (as well as her husband), and there was no way she 'needed' to. Crazy. Wouldn't catch me doing that. 

Edited by Thunderbird
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These topics do kind of make me laugh, I worked at bae a while back as a contractor and a few guys in there twenty's were having kids, seems they used to get really good benefits such as paid time off around the birth flexible working but the older guys who had had there kids had sold these things off to get more holidays because it no longer affected them?

I'll bet they loose more hours to people being off through stress bad backs and general sickness if they pay sick pay.

I wonder if the women taking the time off turns in for work then goes home because of a phone call, or just doesn't show up and phones into work big difference.

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2 hours ago, Mice! said:

These topics do kind of make me laugh, I worked at bae a while back as a contractor and a few guys in there twenty's were having kids, seems they used to get really good benefits such as paid time off around the birth flexible working but the older guys who had had there kids had sold these things off to get more holidays because it no longer affected them?

I'll bet they loose more hours to people being off through stress bad backs and general sickness if they pay sick pay.

I wonder if the women taking the time off turns in for work then goes home because of a phone call, or just doesn't show up and phones into work big difference.

She just phones into work, 2-3 days before her shift and says “I’ve got no childcare I can’t come in.” 

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I’m gob smacked by some of the replies on here.

My mrs is expecting my 4th /her 2nd baby with me. She works at ALDI and if she has no childcare for reasons like my daughter being sick in nursery she has to go home it’s simple. She’s not paid for it so it’s not in our favour. 

People are mentioning about we should of thought about childcare ??? . My daughter wasn’t planned . I can’t really send her back because of work commitments can I ??? 

Any company that hires a woman between 20-40 has to expect childcare problems at some point. We’ve moved to a bigger nursery now to avoid the problems a one woman nursery can have as ours was sick a few times. 

Another person mentioned using the grandparents is wrong ? We use my mum every Wednesday to help us out . She loves it and it helps us out to pay for our nice things . How is that wrong ???  It’s the difference of a car being paid for . That car is getting my partner to work and training for her new career as a police officer next year after the birth of our little one..

its not easy being a parent and I employ 3 lads full time so I see both sides.

 

unfortunately you’ll always get **** takers. 

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