When it comes to balancing time off, the school summer holidays often cause headaches for businesses and employees.
Understanding the employee’s rights to time off is crucial when complying with the law and maintaining a good relationship with staff.
Are employees entitled to time off to look after their child during the summer holidays?
Harriet Gardner, solicitor in Wake Smith’s employment team, summarises the types of leave that employees, who might need time off over the summer holidays, might be entitled to.
This article covers:
- Summary of key types of leave
- Your next move?
Annual leave
The first, and most obvious, type of leave available to employees is annual leave. Employees are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave per year (pro-rata for a part-time worker), irrespective of their length of service. This may include bank holidays.
The contract of employment, or annual leave policy, might provide for additional holiday that is over and above their statutory entitlement, or might entitle them to take their annual leave in addition to bank holidays.
The business might also have a set policy for determining how annual leave is to be allocated – will this be on a first come, first served, basis? A rota to allow employees to “share” the peak holiday season(s)?
Parental leave
Eligible employees can take up to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave, per child – unlike some forms of family leave, parental leave can be taken anytime before the child turns 18.
The leave must be taken with the purpose of caring for that child, including spending more time with the child, or caring for them during the school holidays.
In general, the employee must give at least 21 days’ notice of their intention to take parental leave. If the business is likely to be unduly disrupted by the leave, the employer is entitled to postpone the employee’s parental leave, by up to six months.
An example might be, where the request for parental leave has been submitted during a peak period, or if there is an inability to reorganise the workload due to a large part of the team being on annual leave.
Time off for dependants
In the event of an emergency involving an employee’s dependant, employees might need to take a reasonable amount of time off to deal with the situation. Over the summer holidays, employees might include situations where a child has fallen ill, is injured or if there has been an unexpected disruption in the arrangements for the care of a child.
Unless the employer determines otherwise, the time taken off is usually unpaid. The law does not stipulate how much time an employee can take off for the purpose of time off for dependents, or the number of occasions. In most cases, one or two days is likely to be regarded as reasonable, but each set of circumstances ought to be considered on their own merit.
The employer can take into account the eligibility criteria, as well as any previous dependent leave which has been taken, when deciding to allow the time off.
Time off for carers
As of 6 April 2024, employees can also take up to one week of unpaid time off work in a 12-month rolling period to provide, or arrange care, for a dependent who needs long-term care.
The process is slightly different for employees with irregular working hours. For employees with irregular hours, add up the total number of hours which they have worked in the previous 12 months and then divide that period by 52. The figure given will be the amount of carer’s leave which they are entitled to take.
To take carers leave an employee must give their employer notice. If the request is for a half day or a day, then the employee must give at least 3 days of notice. For anything over a day, the notice given must be at least twice as long as the requested time off.
Employers cannot refuse a request for carer’s leave but can ask the employee to take it at a different time if the proposed leave would cause serious disruption to the company.
Unpaid leave
Unpaid leave is when an employee agrees with their employer to take a period of time off from work without pay.
There are many scenarios where an employee may request unpaid leave. It could be to care for a dependent when they will need longer than the period which their carers leave allows for, or for a career break or to allow them to travel.
Some requests for unpaid leave, such as when an employee has been selected to serve in a Jury will need to be granted however, some, such as when an employee wants a career break (for example, to care for children over the summer holidays) are entirely discretionary to the company and can be declined.
As there is no legislation governing employee’s requests for unpaid leave, it is prudent that employers have comprehensive policies in place outlining their approach to requests for unpaid leave so that employees understand their company’s stance on the issue.
Flexible working
A long-term consideration is whether employees ought to explore flexible working. April 2024 saw a number of changes to flexible working, see here: Employment Law Changes on Flexible Working in 2024 (wake-smith.co.uk)
Flexible working could present a solution when an employee wants an extended period of time off. Giving an employee the opportunity to work around their schedule may negate the need for a longer period of unpaid time off.
Your next move?
The UK’s legislation for taking time off is vast and the above information is not a comprehensive list of employee entitlements, or the processes that must be followed.
For further information on employees’ rights please contact Harriet Gardner on 0114 223 2726 or email harriet.gardner@wake-smith.com
Find out more about our employment services.
