Care leave - Dependant decisions

A dependant is the husband, wife, child or parent of the employee; it can also be someone that lives in the same household. The employee needs to establish who the dependant is before allowing the right to time off in accordance with the Employment Rights Act (1996).

The right to time off is available to all those that have a contract of employment, written or verbal. The Act allows employees to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with certain unexpected or sudden emergencies that may arise with a dependant and to make necessary longer-term arrangements for this.

The Act, however, does not specify the amount of time an employee is allowed off and it is down to the employer to decide upon an acceptable amount of leave. For example, should the leave be due to a child that has caught chicken pox, one or two days is normally sufficient; the employee is not entitled to take two weeks to deal with the sick child. Ask yourself 'does the employee really need a week off work to deal with a dependant's wellbeing? What is the scenario surrounding this request for leave?'

The illness or injury to the dependant may not necessarily be life threatening or serious and may be mental or physical; it could be due to a nervous or mental breakdown that means the dependant requires full-time care. In this case, the employee must receive the necessary time off in order to make other care arrangements, though they should not be given time off to care for the dependant themselves.

As regards qualifying periods, there is no level of service required by your employee in order to take time off for a dependant, as this is an entitlement that comes into effect from the first day that they start working for you. If the employee is aware that a problem may arise beforehand then they must ask for leave in the usual way; this may involve using part of their annual leave entitlement.

If you presume that the employee is abusing their right to time off, the situation should be dealt with in accordance to your normal disciplinary procedures. However, under this right the employee is protected from being penalised or dismissed because they have taken or sought to take time off under the Act. It is unfair in this case to be dismissed or even selected for redundancy if the request for leave was a genuine one. The right does not include an entitlement to pay, so whether or not the employee will be paid is subject to your company's contracts of employment.

Peter Done, managing director, Peninsula.