Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinh
Does it necessarily create a precedent?
There are plenty of instances where employers treat an individual differently on compassionate grounds.
This is a discretionary decision - why does it have to apply to everyone?
Also, it's being taken as Personal/Carer leave - so how could it result in 2 days extra paid leave for every employee?
It could easily be argued that it has no impact on the bottom line whatsoever, and could have a positive impact on morale. Assuming of course that the individual concerned actually tells everyone that she took personal/carer leave to look after her sick pet.
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True, without knowing the workplace culture it's impossible to know how much of a precedent this will create, however I bet there are many workplaces where it would. All it takes is for the lucky recipient of the paid time off to tell some workmates, and the seed is sown.
Your comment about it being taken as Personal/Carers leave assumes that everybody already takes their full 10 days per annum entitlement. I'm sure that's not the case - so for this particular staff member they are being given two days paid leave off work that they wouldn't normally take - that IS a cost to the business unless that person has a job where they sit around all day with nothing to do.
As I said, depending on the culture of this particular workplace, there will be some employees who will milk this for everything they can get. Some people will see this as another easy way to take a sickie and get paid for it. Gen Y staff will certainly see this as an entitlement.
If the staff member in question is a stellar performer who never takes any sick leave, then I can see why it might be beneficial to let them have this time off. Horses for courses I suppose, but I wouldn't be giving somebody time off because their cat has a furball without first thinking carefully about the potential wider consequences for the business. We can be nice tree hugging
HR types, but we also are business partners.
