{"id":7074,"date":"2015-12-11T14:24:50","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T14:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7074"},"modified":"2015-12-11T14:24:50","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T14:24:50","slug":"caught-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7074","title":{"rendered":"Caught cold"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many parents well know the stresses and strains of having a child too ill to go to school when mum and dad need to be at work.<\/p>\n

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This need not (and should not) be the case -\u00c2\u00a0as the TUC is helpfully pointing out. The union organisation is reminding people that they have a legal right to take ‘reasonable’ time off work when their child is under the weather.<\/p>\n

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It’s a point well worth making given that illness accounted for the vast majority of the millions of school days missed every term by children around the UK.<\/p>\n

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Reasonable time off<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thought that as many as three quarters of working parents do not take advantage of this despite parents being allowed the time and space needed to deal with a domestic emergency (and that includes caring for poorly kids).<\/p>\n

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As Frances O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady, TUC general secretary, says, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor most parents it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a daily struggle trying to juggle work and childcare which becomes even more complicated when children succumb to seasonal colds and illnesses.<\/p>\n

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Sensible employers<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSensible employers will give their staff time off to look after their children when they are poorly, or to make alternative arrangements for their childcare.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s also the case that some employers will pay you for this absence, but they do not have to. \u00c2\u00a0If you are unsure about whether you will be paid for such an absence from work it\u00c2\u00a0may be worth checking your employment contract or speaking to a union rep.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Both parents are entitled to time off to look after ill children, so it shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be assumed that mothers will drop everything while fathers carry on as usual.\u00c2\u00a0Dads can request time off work to look after their children too.<\/p>\n

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The charity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Working Families \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is also concerned that many parents are unaware that they are allowed to take time off, or how much.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As Will Hadwen from the charity explains there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a clear understanding of what constitutes \u00e2\u20ac\u0098reasonable\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you take a couple of days off a year because your child is sick or has to be collected from nursery or something like that, then that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably perfectly reasonable,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasonable for an employer to bear the burden of someone being off at short notice; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intended for emergencies and the idea is that you return to work as soon as possible.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seek advice<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, as Hadwen says, should your child be sick regularly some employers may take this as a sign of something which is unreasonable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you are going to need more than a few days off it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best to seek advice as soon as possible,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she notes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Experts also point out that it’s a good idea to speak to your boss when a problem arises in order to let them know how long you plan being absent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information about parental rights at work ring the Working Families helpline on 0300 012 0312 or email advice@workingfamilies.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many parents well know the stresses and strains of having a child too ill to go to school when mum and dad need to be at work.   This need not (and should not) be the case -\u00c2\u00a0as the TUC is helpfully pointing out. The union organisation is reminding people that they have a legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[86,356],"wps_subtitle":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t panic about work when your child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ill","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7074"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7096,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7074\/revisions\/7096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}