Childcare during the holidays: Bring your kid to work day?

Childcare during the holidays: Bring your kid to work day?

If you work full time in the UK, you are entitled to at least 28 days of paid annual leave, including the eight bank holidays. However, for parents of school-age children, the numbers don’t quite add up. First of all, there are all of those weeks at half-term. Next, there are the Easter and Christmas holidays. And then, of course, there’s the ‘big one’ - summer holidays lasting a full six weeks. 

Parents are forced to choose between expensive childcare or relying on friends and family members to look after the children when they aren’t able to. Babysitters can get ill, go on holiday or simply be unreliable. Funds may not be able to stretch to cover childcare. So, what can you do?

What the law says 

The law says that employers must offer some form of flexibility when it comes to their employees’ emergency childcare needs. This usually comes in one of two forms:

1. Offering 1-2 days of unpaid dependent leave 
2. If practical, offering the chance to work from home 

However, sometimes, there’s no choice for parents but to bring their children to work. But is there any legislation around doing this, or are the parameters decided by your employer? 

It’s fundamentally down to your employer

If you work somewhere like a factory line or hospital, it is very unlikely that you will be able to bring your children into work. However, some spaces may be more suitable, such as offices or schools. The ultimate decision is down to your employer. 

If you are allowed to bring your child into work

If your employer decides that you are allowed to bring your children into work, it is critical that both employer and employee are aware of the risks involved:

• Children may not be able to read workplace warning signs and signals. They must therefore be supervised at all times to avoid any incidents. 
• Noise and disturbance to other colleagues. In an open-plan office, the presence of children may disturb other members of the team. Is there a separate area, e.g. a meeting room that could be used? 
• Ordinary equipment may become dangerous. A photocopier or filing cabinet may seem a perfectly innocent item to an adult, but to a child, pulling or pushing in the wrong place can cause injury. Tampering with electrical connections can also put children at risk. 
• Fire safety. Has the safe passage of children been factored into your fire risk assessment, along with the extra hazards they bring? 

In order to negate these risks, employers should consider putting in place:

1. Uniform rules for all staff. It is not fair to allow one person to bring their children in, but not another.
2. Health and safety revisions. The workplace must be comprehensively risk assessed with the safety of both children and staff in mind, including fire risk checklists and evacuation plans. 
3. Limitations. Is there an upper limit to the age of children allowed? Is there a limit to the number of days permitted? Are there specific hours or days to avoid? 
4. Notification. Employers must set up a full procedure that allows workers to request permission for their children to come into work, and timely notifications for relevant employees as to when it may or may not be appropriate.
5. Facilities. Will children stay within a meeting room or other separated area for the majority of the day? Which bathrooms and kitchens will they use? 

Other options

The idea of a creche in the workplace is not a new idea. In fact, it was way back in 2003 when Goldman Sachs brought London’s first on-site creche to the workplace. It offers its employees with children 20 free creche days per year, followed by paid use, allowing them to maintain a better work/life balance without having to leave the office.

Offering such facilities is usually expected to create an initial drop in productivity, but in fact, the opposite is the case. The ability to leave your kid somewhere close by and safe while you get on with your working day transitions into an increase in staff loyalty and retention, both of which dramatically improve productivity levels overall. However, running an on-site creche is far from cheap, meaning currently, only a few large companies (Google, Addison Lee and BookingGo for example) can explore this option easily.

If you need advice on whether you can bring your children into work, or if you’re an employer and are looking for advice on the matter, call 01745 343 500 and ask for Elissa Thursfield or a member of the Employment Team. 

Equality takes centre stage for employers

Equality takes centre stage for employers  

The #TimesUp campaign has captured headlines with its push for greater diversity and equality in Hollywood and the entertainment sector, but these shifting attitudes are mirrored in legislative changes in the UK which will affect employers in the coming months.  

In a series of developments, companies are expected to demonstrate an increasing commitment to an equal, inclusive and supportive workplace and are being encouraged to take steps towards the scheduled and anticipated changes, which will demand a shift in both process and culture.  

Last year saw the introduction of Gender pay gap reporting.  Under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations, all private sector organisations with more than 250 employees must publish details of their gender pay gap, for both basic pay and any bonus payments.  The first reporting had to be submitted by 4 April last year, with a requirement on organisations to provide updated information annually in future, meaning deadlines for the second round of reports are fast approaching.

Alongside, the Government is moving to require reporting for both executive level and ethnic pay gaps, both of which will require data capture in good time to meet future reporting requirements. 

First will be the requirements on Executive pay gap reporting, with rules now in force that require UK quoted companies with more than 250 employees to set out the ratio of the CEO’s pay and benefits compared with that of employees.  It applies to financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2019, and the first reporting will be due in 2020. As well as the reporting submission, the information must be included in future directors’ remuneration reports.

Hard on its heels is the prospect of mandatory Ethnic pay gap reporting, which is likely to pose many challenges for data collection, depending on the final requirements established.  The issue was put out for consultation, which has now closed, and while it is expected by many commentators to be confined to organisations with over 250 employees, in line with other pay gap reporting, there have been calls to include smaller organisations of 50+ employees. 

The consultation has explored which employers should be involved, the ethnicity pay data to be reported and what supporting information employers may be asked to provide, such as an action plan to tackle any identified bias.  But whatever the final requirements, they are expected to be challenging to implement. Employment law  expert Elissa Thursfield  explained: “The consultation has looked at the challenges of collecting, analysing and reporting ethnicity pay information if it is to be meaningful.  One of the problems is that there is no legal obligation for employers to collect information on ethnicity and even where they try to do so, an individual can choose not to disclose their ethnic group.” 

Alongside, organisations are likely to find themselves having to explain how they are supporting parents and other carers in their workforce, with the Government exploring the possibility of a new law requiring employers with more than 250 employees to publish details of their family-friendly policies.  

One such policy is for bereaved parents.  The new Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Act will give all employed parents the right to take two weeks off work if they lose a child under the age of 18 or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. The entitlement will have no minimum service requirement and the parent will have 56 weeks from their child’s death to take the leave.  Those parents who have been in continuous employment for 26 weeks with their employer will be able to claim pay for the leave.  

“While the new right is not expected to come into force until April 2020, employers will need to start preparing now, and may wish to consider introducing their own bereavement leave policy, if they don’t already have one, particularly with the focus on demonstrating good practice that we are seeing,” added  Elissa. 

“Last year’s Oscar winner Frances McDormand captured headlines with her calls for an ‘inclusion rider’ in movie contracts, so as to achieve certain diversity and inclusion thresholds in future, but we are seeing a significant shift in attitudes across the sectors.  Certainly, for employers in the UK, there are increasingly tough requirements to act responsibly and inclusively. 

“And while employers do not have any obligation to provide any narrative around their gender pay gap, or to do more than fulfil their legal requirements, being open and up front with explanations and future plans may help to limit any reputational damage as comparisons will be made and progress expected, in this and all other aspects of equality.”