Taking breaks and Taking time off
Taking breaks and Taking time off
Taking breaks and Taking time off – In most types of work, you’re entitled to breaks. The European Working Time Directive says that you just should be allowed one break of 20 minutes in case your working day is greater than six hours long.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your employer could enable extra frequent and longer breaks – most individuals are allowed a lunch hour. In case you work continuously at a pc display screen, you must be allowed a 10-minute break each hour – away from the display screen, but not away from work – for well-being and security causes.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your boss doesn’t need to make you take a break, however, he has to make it doable, so that you can take them. Basically, in office scenarios, you might go for a break and grab a coffee.
Taking Time Off
You may want or need to take time off during your employment year for all sorts of reasons.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your employer should make it clear from the beginning what the company policy is on holidays or sick days etc. The law covers your rights to paid holidays, but your employer may be more generous than the law requires.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Laws cover how much you have to be paid if you’re off sick, having a baby, adopting, or spending time with young children, as well as how much time off you’re allowed. You also have to be allowed time off with pay to do your public duty, and at other times, the employer has to let you take off but doesn’t have to pay you.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Taking holidays Most employees are entitled to at least four weeks of paid holiday a year.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your employer may be more generous than that. If you do get just the minimum of four weeks to leave and you work 5 days a week, you’re entitled to 20 days off. If you work 3 days a week, you’re entitled to 12 days off with pay.
Bank holidays can be counted toward your total holiday entitlement, or you may be given four weeks plus the bank holidays.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Whether or not bank holidays are included, you don’t have to be given the actual day of the bank holiday off if your employer is usually operating on that day. You may be given another day instead. If you do work on the bank holiday, you aren’t entitled to be paid any more than a normal day’s pay for it unless that’s been agreed in your contract.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – When you want to take some of your annual leave, you have to give your employer notice. If you want two weeks off, you have to give at least four weeks’ notice (it’s best to prepare your boss for your holiday entitlement in advance).
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If your boss can’t allow you to take that particular time off, he has to give you notice of at least the length of time off you’ve requested, so in this case, he has to give you two week’s notice that the answer to your request is no.
Employers can dictate that you have to take a holiday at particular times when their workplaces are closed, such as Christmas, or that you can’t take holiday at, particularly busy times. If you want to take time off for certain religious festivals and are refused, take advice. Your employer may be guilty of discrimination on the grounds of religion.
Your boss has to make it possible for you to take all your leave, but he doesn’t have to make you take it.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you don’t take all your leave within your holiday year (defined in your contract – usually the beginning of January to the end of December or the beginning of April to the end of March), your employer doesn’t have to let you carry the unused days over into the next holiday year or pay you for them.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you don’t use it, you could lose it! You should make sure that you find out what the company policy is.
Taking time off sick
If you’re off sick, you’re likely to be entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP). Your employer is entitled not to pay you for the first three days off (the waiting days); he has to pay you from the fourth day. SSP is paid for a maximum of 28 weeks at a rate of £70.05.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you’re still unable to work after that time, you have to apply for Incapacity Benefit from the state welfare benefits system (job seekers allowance or universal credit) through your Benefits Agency Office or Job Centre Plus.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your employer may be more generous when it comes to sick pay and pay contractual sick pay on top of your SSP. Contractual sick pay usually amounts to your usual wages for a period of time without any waiting days. If your contract says that you’re entitled to contractual sick pay, your employer has to pay you that higher amount.
Taking time off for maternity leave
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Nearly 750,000 babies are born each year in the UK, so you aren’t alone if you take time off to have a baby or bring up children. In the past, some employers have simply sacked women who got pregnant, treated them unfairly and hoped they’d leave or made their jobs mysteriously disappear while they were on maternity leave and refused to take them back.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – The law has changed in this area probably more than any other area of employment law, and employers can no longer act in this way without risking the wrath of employment tribunals. Check out exactly what your entitlement is when you find out you’re pregnant and check what it says in your employment contract.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – The law doesn’t allow women to be unfairly treated or dismissed because they’re pregnant or having a baby. You’re entitled to:
- Paid time off for antenatal care
- Protection against unfair treatment or dismissal
- Protection of your terms and conditions whilst on maternity leave
- Maternity pay
- Maternity leave if you’ve been employed long enough
- The right to return to work
From day one in your job, you’re entitled to reasonable time off to go to antenatal appointments that your doctor or midwife has recommended and to be paid your normal hourly rate while you’re off. If your employer refuses, you can take a claim against the company to an employment tribunal. (See the upcoming section ‘Taking a Case Against Your Boss.’)
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you’re sick before birth, the period of illness should be treated the same as any other period of illness, with normal sick leave and sick pay rules applying.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you’re sick within four weeks of the expected week of childbirth, but before the date you intended to start your maternity leave and the illness is related to your pregnancy, your maternity leaves automatically starts.
There are two types of maternity leave:
- Ordinary maternity leave: You’re entitled to this 26-week leave regardless of how long you’ve worked for your employer.
- Additional maternity leave: You’re entitled to an extra 26 weeks as long as you have worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks at the beginning of the 15th week before the expected week of confinement.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – You can qualify for one or both periods of leave, but you have to tell your employer by the start of the 15th week before the expected week of the birth when you intend to start your leave. You can change your mind about that date, but you have to give 28 days notice.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your employer will probably want a certificate MAT B1 from your doctor or midwife verifying the week the birth is expected. Your maternity leave can’t start any earlier than the 11th week before the week in which the baby is due.
After the baby is born, you can’t go back to work any sooner than 14 days after the birth. If you take your full leave entitlement, you don’t have to do anything other than turn up on the day you’re due back to work, but if you intend to go back early, you have to give your employer 28 days’ notice.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you don’t give the correct notice, your company can delay the date of your return and take disciplinary action against you, but it can’t make you give up your maternity rights. If you’re sick at the end of your maternity leave, the normal rules about sickness apply.
While you’re off on 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave, you’re entitled to all the benefits set out in your contract. Your holiday entitlement still builds up. You have the same rights if you’re made redundant, but you can’t be made redundant rather than someone else because you’re on maternity leave.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – You’re entitled to pension contributions from your employer, as well as private medical insurance, permanent health insurance, use of the company car, and any other benefits that appear in your contract. You have similar rights if you’re expected.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – Your maternity leave can’t start any earlier than the 11th week before the week in which the baby is due.
After the baby is born, you can’t go back to work any sooner than 14 days after the birth. If you take your full leave entitlement, you don’t have to do anything other than turn up on the day you’re due back to work, but if you intend to go back early, you have to give your employer 28 days’ notice. If you don’t give the correct notice, your company can delay the date of your return and take disciplinary action against you, but it can’t make you give up your maternity rights. If you’re sick at the end of your maternity leave, the normal rules about sickness apply.
While you’re off on 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave, you’re entitled to all the benefits set out in your contract. Your holiday entitlement still builds up. You have the same rights if you’re made redundant, but you can’t be made redundant rather than someone else because you’re on maternity leave. You’re entitled to pension contributions from your employer, as well as private medical insurance, permanent health insurance, use of the company car, and any other benefits that appear in your contract. You have similar rights if you’re adopting a child, and most fathers have the right to up to two weeks of paternity leave.
You may also be entitled to some maternity pay for the time you’re off. You must be paid Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) if you’ve worked for your employer for 26 weeks by the 15th week before the expected week of birth and have earned enough to pay National Insurance Contributions. The £84.00 SMP currently lasts for 26 weeks. (The Government is planning to extend maternity pay to cover up to 52 weeks off.) For the first 6 weeks, SMP is 90 per cent of your normal wages. For the next 20 weeks, it’s either the £108.85 set by the Government or 90 per cent of your salary – whichever is the lower amount. Of course, your employer can be more generous than that, and if your contract says the company will pay you more, then it has to do so.
When you return to work, you’re entitled to go back to the same job on the same terms and conditions as when you started your maternity leave. You don’t have a legal right to work part-time or to work some of the time at home, but if you ask your company for those changes, it has to consider them. If the company rejects your request without a good business reason, you may be able to make a claim against it for sex discrimination on the grounds that, because women usually have the primary childcare responsibilities, refusing to let you work fewer hours or from home has more impact on your life than a man’s. You can also request flexible working. (See the upcoming section ‘Taking time off for family reasons.’)
This whole area of employment law is complicated, and you should make sure that you get all the information you can right from the start of your pregnancy. Pregnancy For Dummies by Jarvis, Stone, Eddleman, and Duenwald (Wiley) has all the information and advice you’ll need, and your local CAB can help. Find it in your phone book or on the Internet at www.adviceguide.co.uk.
Taking time off for public duties
The law says that you have to be given time off with pay if you’re a trade union official carrying out certain trade union duties, including duties as a health and safety representative. You must also be given time off if you’re a company pension fund trustee. On top of that, employees are entitled to reasonable time off – unpaid – to carry out various public duties. If you’re lucky, your employer may be more generous and pay you for time off to act as a magistrate or local councillor.
The problem is that the law isn’t clear on how much time off is reasonable and which public duties should count. Some employers draw the line at being a magistrate or councillor, while others give time off to do voluntary, charity, or community work.
As far as jury service is concerned, you don’t have a legal right to time off, but if your company refuses to allow you to go, it may fall foul of the law for contempt of court. Not only that, but it’s automatically unfair to dismiss you for taking time off for jury duty, so you would be able to make a claim against the company at an employment tribunal.
Taking time off for family reasons
Most parents have the right to time off to spend with their children. Each parent can take up to a total of 13 weeks of parental leave for each child for the first 5 years of that child’s life – unpaid. You still work for the company while you’re off, and you have to be allowed to come back to the same job if you take four weeks or less off at any one time.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If you take longer and it’s not reasonably practicable for you to return to the same job, you have to be offered a similar one with the same or better status and terms and conditions.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – You also have the right to ask for flexible working conditions, such as working different hours, working longer one day and less the next, or doing some of your work from home. Your boss doesn’t have to say yes, but if he refuses, he has to have a good business reason for saying no.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – A refusal may amount to indirect sex discrimination. You can make complaints about a refusal to agree to flexible working and indirect discrimination to an employment tribunal.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If someone close to you dies you have no legal right to time off but if the dead person was a dependent – someone who lives in your household as part of the family – usually a relative such as a spouse, child, parent or another relative, the Government expects your employer to give you a reasonable amount of time off. The closer the relative the more time you’re likely to need to make all the necessary arrangements and recover enough to be able to get back to work.
Taking breaks and Taking time off – If a dependent is ill, you should be given enough time off to help them, arrange care, or deal with unexpected emergencies. There’s no limit to what’s reasonable or to the number of times an employee can take time off, and if your employer says no, you can complain to an employment tribunal. However, you have a responsibility to be reasonable, too, and not exploit the situation.