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It's kicking off for employers...
It's kicking off for employers...
March 10, 2010
2010 has come round pretty fast, and business owners are getting ready to deal with workers’ requests for time off to watch World Cup matches on TV - or even go to South Africa. Can you remember all the legal rules about holidays?
The bottom line is that workers are entitled to 28 days’ paid holiday each year (a pro-rata proportion for part-timers and temps), and entitlement starts from day one of their employment. But job contracts and policies may allow your staff to carry holiday forward in some circumstances, and new case law says sick workers have the right to carry holiday forward in some circumstances, so some employees may be entitled to more than 28 days.
Contracts or policies can limit when employees can take holiday – provided they have taken their 28 days by the end of the holiday year. For example, employers may be able to insist they take part of their holiday on bank holidays and/or during an annual summer close-down, and stop them from taking holiday during peak periods or when the firm would otherwise be short-staffed – proper, objective grounds. Think about emailing employees to remind them when you can refuse holiday requests. Some employers also set limits on how long each holiday can be - for example, that no holiday can last more than a fortnight.
Contracts or policies may set out how much notice employees must give you of their holiday plans. If not, the notice an employee gives has to be twice as long as the holiday they are asking for. So two days’ holiday requires four days’ notice.
If an employer refuses proposed holiday dates they have to do so in writing, and the length of notice of the refusal must be at least as long as the holiday requested – for example, at least two weeks before the worker’s holiday is due to start if refusing a two-week holiday.
Employers often have a system for determining priority if there are holiday clashes or if they’d otherwise be left short-staffed. This needs to be fair and non- discriminatory system, which can be as simple as ‘first come, first served’. Favouring employees with longer service could discriminate against younger employees who have not had time to build up service, and may also be sex discrimination because (on average) women have shorter periods of service than men.
That’s holidays sorted – but how do you stop workers just calling in sick on their country’s match days - a particular problem with this World Cup because South Africa and the UK are on similar time zones, so matches will be on during the working day? Answers on a World Cup ticket please!
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I understand Fan that not everyone enjoys football, but you can never please everybody. This doesn't mean employers shouldn't try on special occasions to reward their employees.
After the recession and (what seemed) like never-ending snow during the winter people need a bit of a lift. In June the World Cup may put a bit of bounce back into the nations step. Employers should look to take advantage of this 'feel good factor' because it can be used to boost their business.
While I'm not exactly a footer fan myself (Formula 1 every time), I do love the cheeriness and general jollity that springs up at work on match days. Even us football dunces summon up a lot of good feeling at these times.
Couldn't we make the most of that? Organising a sweepstake at work makes everyone feel involved. Or allowing everyone to leave 10 minutes early to head to the biggest local TV screen (probably in a hostelry) gives us all a treat.
Teamworking isn't just for the first eleven - we can use it to boost the business too.
I'm going to book some leave during the Olympics and get myself to the velodrome. But I wouldn't expect to be given time off in the middle of a working day to watch an event. Coverage is so all-pervasive these days anyway that most people will be able to keep track of it via their PC/laptop/radio/phone and then watch the highlights package on the BBC later on. My point is that if it's really that important to you, take the time as leave - don't expect your employer (and fellow employees who are not into sport) to subsidise you. Yes, football is our"national" sport, but all that means is that a larger minority are into it than are into other activities. It does not mean that 99 per cent of the population are going to stop everything to watch a goal being scored. Even if England, by some miracle, get to the final, less than half the population will actually watch the game. There's no majority there - that's just a media illusion.
Martin's idea is fine, if you can keep tabs on who's doing what or you really trust your employees. Also, Mark, not everyone sees going to watch football as a reward (quite the opposite for some of us). Simon, will you change your tune in two years time for the Olympics? Interesting debate though...
I'm not really into sport, but I just LOVE music festivals... can I have time off to get to Glasto early please?! (only kidding, it's not like I have tickets *sob*)
You've answered your own question Simon. It's our national sport, whether you personally enjoy it or not the fact remains that millions care about the fate of the England football team in South Africa and their success (or probable failure) will have an affect on the morale on the nation if only for a couple of days.
Employers should be aware of this, and attempt to be flexible as they can, as they should with any event (sporting or not) which is likely to catch the nations fervor.
Sometimes it's good for employees and employers to step back from the daily grind and have a reason to join together in celebration if only for 90 minutes. It would be a shame to miss that opportunity because we’re too pre-occupied with responding to an email or working through a pile of work.
I'm not particularly interested in the World Cup or football, but I love cycling. Can I have time off to watch the Tour de France? What about the hockey world cup that's on at the moment - I wonder how many employers dealt with requests to watch England play Germany in the semi-final this afternoon? Oh, and there's the athletics world championships - I'd love to watch Dwain Chambers powering down the track in the middle of the afternoon. What's that you say - "These are minority sports and football is our national game"? Does that really matter? It's a football match. Get on with your jobs. Why do we have this hysterical charade every four years?
With it being just the one game, you could reward hard-working employees by simply letting them watch the match?
It would result in an immediate increase in morale and think how much more productive and motivated employees will be in the aftermath of the game, once we've (hopefully) qualified from the group...
Otherwise I agree with Martin. Be flexible and let employees start or finish earlier/later. Problem solved for everybody.
If there's an afternoon kick-off, how about simply extending the working day for a couple of hours? Employees will appreciate the flexibility and any potential absenteeism will be reduced.
When England played Argentina on a Friday lunchtime, all I did was take twice the normal lunch break and work on for an extra hour.
Of course, if you go down that path you might consider putting a telly up in the office so that employees stay on the premises to watch the match - with all the legal considerations that would doubtless pose.
Interesting thoughts on the legal headache of a sporting event . I remember school opening late so that we could watch England play Brazil at 7am when it was in Japan. And the French teacher letting us watch Eng v Tunisia (with no sound) during an end of year exam for France 98.
As far as the group stages go, the England v Slovenia fixture is the only weekday-daytime combo fixture. It has a 3pm kick-off.
In theory, as it is the last fixture in the group stages for England it will be a nice kickabout, having already progressed through to the knock-outs.
Oh to be an employer in Wales and Scotland etc where this is much less of a headache...
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