The client wants to do whatever they can to support them, what options do they have?
As it currently stands, they may be able to make a flexible working request, to change their hours or working pattern. Government proposals are to make this a right from the first day of employment, but currently this requires 26 weeks service. Your client will have to consider the request carefully, and only refuse if there are good reasons to do so – the law gives 8 reasons under which a request can be refused:
- the burden of additional costs
- detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
- inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- inability to recruit additional staff
- detrimental impact on quality
- detrimental impact on performance
- insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
- planned structural changes.
If the issues are more ad hoc, then your client will have to consider if this falls within time off for dependents. If they live with their partner, and are the main care giver, it is likely they will be classed as a dependent. This means they have the right to emergency time off (unpaid) to provide immediate care and arrange for ongoing support. This is for situations where care has fallen through, or the partners condition takes a sudden turn for the worse, and should only be used when absolutely necessary.
Alternatively, your client may want to offer options beyond the minimum required by the law. They could, for example, introduce a system where the employee can bank time, to be taken in lieu at a later date as the need arises. This would need to be monitored carefully, to prevent the employee working too much, risking their health. There may also be minimum wage concerns if they work a lot of extra hours but do not take them off in the same month, as it could cause their hourly rate to drop below the minimum wage. Another option is to allow for short notice annual leave, or agree working from home.
Following consultation in 2020, the government have now announced plans to introduce unpaid carers leave. This would give unpaid carers the right to up to one week (5 working days) off a year, to be broken up however they need (e.g. individual days, half-days or the whole week at once). We do not yet have a date for when this will be introduced, nor have details been published about how these arrangements will work in practice, but they this be of interest to client when they do come into effect.
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