Many teachers at thousands of schools in England plan to walk out today, Thursday, 27 April, and again on Tuesday, 2 May, as part of strike action over disputes relating to pay.

Hannah Dowd, our Employment Lawyer reviews and explains your rights if you need to take time off due to your children’s school being closed.

Key dates:

In England:

The NEU is striking again on Wednesday, 5 July, and Friday, 7 July.

Do I have the right to take time off?

Parents do have the right to take time off for emergency childcare.

If you are affected due to your children’s school being closed, or your normal childcare arrangements are affected and disrupted due to an emergency situation, you do have a statutory right as an employee to take unpaid time off to look after your child.

This is a question that crops up a lot. Employers should be reminded that employees have a statutory right to a reasonable period of unpaid time off for dependants under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996. 

"Dependant" means a spouse, civil partner, child, parent or person who lives in the same household as the employee other than as an employee, tenant, lodger or boarder

The right applies where an employee needs to take time off work because of unexpected disruption to the care arrangements for a dependant. It would apply where a nursery is closed due to issues with their staff, for example staff shortages or the unavailability of a child minder.

Do you want to know more about your legal rights? Make an enquiry.

What should I do now?

An employee should always try to inform their employer as soon as practically possible and if possible, try to identify the length of time they might need to have off from work.

The right to time off for dependants is designed to allow the employee to deal with an unexpected event and to make alternative arrangements. It is therefore likely to be reasonable for an employee to take one day’s absence to make these arrangements – the right is not designed to give employees time off to care for their child for an extended period.

The legal position is that there are no specific time limits on how much time you can take away from work but it suggests that a “reasonable” amount of time is agreed and that employers should try to be flexible.

If your request if refused, and you are unhappy with the refusal, you can raise an internal grievance. There must be justifications for the reasons why the request is refused.

Have you been denied your rights? Call today.

Will I get paid for taking the time off?

The answer to this, is that it is down to your employer.

There may be a policy in the company handbook, or wherever your employer keeps the policies for the organisation which allows paid leave for emergencies.

Strike action is normally announced prior to the strike day occurring; therefore, some employers may not deem this as an emergency. They may expect you to make other arrangements.

Other options to consider include asking to take the time off under your paid annual holiday allowance. Alternatively, ask your employer if there are other arrangements it can put in place, such as enabling you to work from home or swap shifts.

Request a call back and talk through your options.

How do I ask for time off from my employer?

If you are planning on taking time off, tell your employer as soon as possible

Put any requests in writing if you can. Explain within the request why you haven’t been able to make alternative arrangements due to childcare and whether you are requesting unpaid or paid leave. You could also set out what arrangements could be made to mitigate (keep to a minimum) your time off work.

CHECK YOUR CONTRACT!

Dependent on your worker status, your rights will be affected and so you should check whether you are a ‘worker’ or an ‘employee’.

If you are not an employee, you will not be entitled to time off for emergencies. You will know whether you are a worker as opposed to an employee if your contract with the organisation uses terms such as ‘zero hours’, ‘as required’, ‘self-employed’ or something similar.

Get in touch with Jackson Lees.

We make Employment Law easy to understand and we’re here to give you peace of mind.

If you're looking for friendly Employment Law advice and want to talk through your options, call 0151 282 1700, or make an enquiry today.