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Policy 29: Time Off For Dependants And Carers Leave Policy

TIME OFF FOR DEPENDANTS AND CARERS LEAVE POLICY

Dependants

The Company recognises that situations arise where you need to take time off work to deal with an emergency involving someone who depends on you. Provided the reasons for such a request are genuine and you inform the Company as soon as possible that you need this time off, you will be allowed reasonable unpaid time off work to deal with such emergencies.

Your husband, wife or partner, child or parent, or someone living with you as part of your family can all be considered as depending on you. Others who rely solely on you for help in an emergency may also qualify. For further detail as to who counts as depending on you and guidance on individual circumstances, please speak to the Company Administrator.

The Emergency

The right to time off only covers emergencies. If you know in advance that you are going to need time off, you may be able to arrange this with the Company by taking another form of leave, such as parental, maternity, paternity or adoption leave.

For these purposes, an emergency is an unexpected situation that arises where someone who depends on you:

  • is ill and needs your help
  • is involved in an accident or assaulted
  • needs you to arrange their longer term care
  • needs you to deal with an unexpected disruption or breakdown in care, such as a childminder or nurse failing to turn up
  • goes into labour

You can also take time off if a dependent dies and you need to make funeral arrangements or attend the funeral.

Length of Time Off

You can only take off as long as it takes to deal with the immediate emergency. For example, if a dependent is ill you can take enough time off to deal with their initial needs, such as taking them to the doctor and arranging for their care. You cannot take time off work to provide that care yourself and will need to make alternative arrangements for their longer term care. If you want to stay off work longer to care for them yourself you will normally need to take this as part of your annual leave entitlement.

As a general benchmark, no more than a day should be necessary.

Notice

You must tell the Company as soon as possible why you are away from work and how long you expect to be off. In extreme cases of emergency where you cannot inform the Company of your absence before your return to work, on you return you should still inform your manager why you were absent.

Carer’s Leave

All employees are entitled to one week’s unpaid leave in any 12-month period to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. A “week” for these purposes will be equal in duration to the period you are normally expected to work in a week at the time of making the request. How that is calculated will depend on whether you have non-variable or variable hours of work.

A dependant is:

  • your spouse, civil partner, child or parent;
  • someone who lives in the same household as you, otherwise than by reason of being your boarder, employee, lodger or tenant, or;
  • anybody else who reasonably relies on you to provide or arrange their care.

A dependant has a long-term care need if:

  • they have an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months,
  • they have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, or
  • they require care for a reason connected with their old age.

The minimum period of carer’s leave that can be taken at one time is half a working day, with the maximum period being one continuous week. Leave need not be taken on continuous days.

You must give notice of your request to take a period of carer’s leave. This can relate to all or part of the leave to which you are entitled. The notice must:

  • Specify that you are entitled to take carer’s leave;
  • Specify the days on which you would like to take carer’s leave and if you will take a full or a half day; and
  • Be given with the following minimum notice periods depending on how many days of leave you want to take: Half a day to 1 day – 3 days’ notice; 1.5 to 2 days – 4 days’ notice; 2.5 to 3 days – 6 days’ notice; 3.5 to 4 days – 8 days’ notice; 4.5 to 5 days – 10 days’ notice; or 6 days (if you work 6 days a week) – 12 days’ notice.

The notice does not need to be in writing, but it would be helpful if it was in order to maintain an accurate record of what is being requested.

The Company may, in its absolute discretion, waive the notice length requirement above, and as long as the other requirements are met, the request will be treated as one for carer’s leave.

If the Company reasonably considers that the operation of the business would be unduly disrupted if your request was granted, it may postpone the start of the carer’s leave after consulting with you to agree an alternative date(s) which is/are no later than one month after the earliest day or half day of the request. In these circumstances, the Company will give written notice to you of the postponement, setting out the reason for the postponement and the agreed dates you can take the leave. This notice will be given with the following minimum notice periods depending on how many days of leave you want to take: half a day to 1 day – 3 days’ notice; 1.5 to 2 days – 4 days’ notice; 2.5 to 3 days – 6 days’ notice; 3.5 to 4 days – 8 days’ notice; 4.5 to 5 days – 10 days’ notice; or 6 days (if you work 6 days a week) – 12 days’ notice.