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With the knockout stages of the Euros 2012 about to start and the London Olympics just under a month away, leading Black Country law firm George Green LLP warns local employers to be careful when dealing with unauthorised absence by Summer sports fans.
Tim Lang, Partner and Head of the Employment Team at George Green LLP says “Even though all of the games in the knockout stage of the Euros are evening kick offs, employees may still take a “sickie” after over-indulging while watching the previous night’s match. Employers may also see an increase in time employees spend checking sports news online while at work and care must be taken when dealing with both of these issues.”
Mr Lang continued “Firstly employers should review their absence management policy or put one in place if they don’t have one. The next step should be to remind employees that unauthorised absence will be dealt with according to the company’s disciplinary procedure. Employers should monitor patterns of absence as a matter of course and ensure that return to work interviews are carried out where appropriate. Employers could also look to gather evidence of obvious unauthorised leave and employees’ Facebook pages may be one of the sources of such evidence. Of course employees are quite within their rights to book annual leave to watch the football and Olympics. However employers should ensure that annual leave is granted fairly, for example, agreeing to requests on a ‘first come, first served’ basis”.
According to Mr Lang “Companies can also use both the Euros and the Olympics in a positive way by focusing on the ‘team bonding’ atmosphere they can create. Employers may want to consider introducing reasonable flexible working where employees can make up their time if they want to watch a match/event at home, which will boost staff morale. It is important, however, to ensure that all employees not just the sports fans are given the same level of flexibility in order to avoid any complaints of unfair treatment or discrimination”.