Whilst this situation may be surprising for your client it is by no means uncommon, with a recent study by the Work and Pension Committee revealing one in nine employees are currently forced to juggle work and care commitments
Unlike maternity leave, there is currently no statutory entitlement for a prolonged period of carer’s leave. As a result, your client should sit down with the employee and decide how any time off will be covered. A period of annual leave could be agreed, or if appropriate to the employee’s needs, a period of flexible working may be more suitable.
Employees with 26 weeks’ service are automatically eligible to make a flexible working request, however, your client may be inclined to waive this service requirement under the circumstances. This would allow to the employee to request either a change in working schedule, reduction in working time or a period of home working which may give them sufficient opportunity to care for their elderly mother.
Your client has a duty to consider flexible working requests and should only refuse these if there is a justifiable business reason to do so. It is vital that your client gives any request due consideration and avoids simply dismissing it out of hand as this could leave them open to claims of associative disability discrimination.
Alternatively, if the employee is seeking a continuous period away from work then your client could decide to allow them to take this as unpaid leave. It should be noted that this is discretionary and may set a precedent which your client will be bound to in future instances. However, it could be a good way for your client to retain the employee as they may otherwise feel the need to resign in order to care for their mother.
If your client and the employee agree to the period of unpaid leave, then it is important to agree on a date in advance when this period will come to an end. At this point, your client and the employee will need to review the situation once more and find a more business-friendly solution to the situation.
Finally, it should be noted that an official government working group has been set up to evaluate whether ways to provide better support to carers at work. Recent campaigners have called on the government to introduce a period of paid statutory carers leave and it will be advisable for your client to keep an eye out for any future developments in this situation.
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