Carer's Leave: Will individuals have the right to a minimum amount of days per year, and would that be prorated? 

Seamus: I think that the general position is that when we know someone is having a difficult time, whether it's to look after an elderly parent or a child, I think employers are genuinely quite good with that. It gets to the point, though, where it does become a problem for productivity and issues.

And I suppose the big one during COVID was always the issues around childcare and how you manage childcare whenever there were no schools and there was no facility, no day care, nurseries, or anything like that. I see a lot of my clients, that's a real frustration for them around childcare. "Sorry, I can't come in today. My child is sick". It is a reality, though, of life. But I think where the frustration happens is where it is a regular occurrence that has taken place.

So I think that when it comes to carers, the idea here is that where there are genuine circumstances of someone who is caring for a sick partner or child or parent, that it is to build in and around that.

There's talk of that sort of 10 days' paid carer's leave in relation to it. And I suppose that when we get on to the Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) legislation, it's always the worry that how is that going to be managed, and is it open to abuse? Can someone just ring it up and say? So I think it'll be good to see guidance. It'll be good to see commentary around how that should be managed.

I think you need to be careful about it because we have things like associated disability claims, those sorts of things as well. But there has to be, I think, more than just someone being able to lift the phone and say, "I can't come in today because of X, Y or Z".

So I think that the onus should be on the employee to explain the circumstances around why they would be seeking carer's leave and what the background to that is.

I don't anticipate that you're going to have a situation where you're going to have a fit note or anything like that in relation to it. So it is about evidencing that and an employer's reasonable expectation of what the employee can give them in order to give assurances that there's an actual need there in respect of the carer's aspect.

Christine: Yeah, it would seem unlikely that they could put a cap on it, or maybe they'll put a cap on the number of paid days. But I don't think you can say, "Your child is not allowed to be sick again", or, "Your elderly mother is not allowed to have a hospital appointment again". It's that fine line. I can't see there being a cap on it. It'll be a wee bit like the dependant's leave.

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Employment Law at 11 - 7th March 2025

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