News and Events

World Cup Employment Issues

The World Cup- a beautiful game?

With the World Cup tournament now underway and England due to play the final of their three group matches on Wednesday, many employers will not be viewing it as a beautiful game, but rather a four week headache.

Where do you stand if an employee requests time off in order to view a crucial match? What if you receive requests to watch or listen to a match during office hours, or if an employee simply does not turn up for work?

Requests for time off as leave

There is no legal obligation for employers to give their employees paid or unpaid leave for specific sporting events, such as the World Cup. However, there is little point in denying a day or half day’s leave request simply on principle, as this may lead to unproductive, uncooperative staff and at worst unauthorised absences.

If a large number of the workforce request leave on the same day, you may want to consider requests on a first come first served or rota basis, similar to dealing with requests for leave during School holidays or Christmas. It is important that employers are seen to be fair in the way they respond to requests for leave and apply a fair and consistent policy to all employees. Not every employee in your organisation will support England and some employees may have little or no interest in football. By applying a fair and consistent policy to all employees, the potential for discrimination is greatly reduced.

Requests to watch a specific match

South Africa is 1 hour ahead of British Summer Time and therefore the majority of England's group matches are being held out of traditional office hours. However, for those employing night or shift workers, this may not be the case and may be more of an issue. If you do receive requests from employees wanting to watch or listen to a match, where do you stand, and do you have to agree to their request? Again, there is no legal obligation for employers to allow their employees paid, or unpaid, time off to watch a specific match. If you are unable to accommodate a full day or half days leave request, allowing employees to watch a specific match can be an attractive alternative.

Employers may decide to agree either paid or unpaid time to watch a specific match. For example, an employer may decide to allow paid time to view a match on the basis that this time is made up at a later stage, or it may be agreed on an unpaid basis. What ever is decided this must be clearly communicated to staff. To accommodate those employees who wish to view a big match, whether it's as paid or unpaid time, start and finish times can be altered, or lunch breaks extended. Ultimately, the needs of the business must come first and if productivity is going to suffer, be as open and honest about your reasons for refusing a request.

Absenteeism

It is the day of a big match, or morning after the night before, and a number of employees have failed to turn up to work, or have turned up under the influence of alcohol or drugs, what can you do? As a preventative measure to try to avoid this, employers can send an all staff e-mail or memo, making it clear that unauthorised absences, attending work under the influence or hung-over is not acceptable and action will be taken in line with the Company's disciplinary and sickness absence policy. That way employee's are under no illusion that unauthorised absences or breaches of the disciplinary procedure will not go unnoticed. It is of course important to have in place up to date policies and procedures and also to inform employees where these can be located.

It must be remembered that not all employees absent from work during the World Cup will be those "pulling a sickie" and it is important not to discriminate against those who are genuinely sick and unable to attend work.

To avoid any own goals contact the Employment Team on 01935 846000.

Created: 21 June 2010