Holiday sickies

A lot has been made of recent European rulings that declare employees must have time off again if they are sick during their holiday. Naturally as employers we immediately imagine our employees with a box of tissues in hand, lying on a sun bed and pulling a sickie. The ruling came about because the law says people need a break from work for their health and wellbeing but in these days of austerity how many are actually getting a proper break? Many parents take alternate weeks off during the school holidays and end up trying to catch up on all the jobs at home; hardly the way to energise yourself for work. 

Alternatively they spend an absolute fortune on a “day out” to one of the attractions, it pours with rain, the lions hide and the souvenirs bought with Granny’s money cause world war three in the back seat on the way home. It’s no wonder that the Smartphone soon comes out of the drawer where it was placed with such good intentions at the start of the break. Fear is a contributory factor to staff staying connected during evenings, weekends and holidays but this is not good for them. 

So a bit of advice from The HR Dept: tell your staff to switch off and above all have some fun and laughter away from the office so they can come back refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. That is if the gardening did not do their back in!

Swiss holidays

If we had a referendum in the UK about increasing our statutory holiday entitlement, it would perhaps cause a huge rush at the polling stations and the clamour would cause a stampede! In Switzerland, if more than 100,000 citizens speak up about a particular issue, they get their voice heard in a referendum, giving citizens the opportunity to have their say on changes to laws, budgets etc.

Recently, voters in Switzerland opted ‘out’ of proposals to increase employee statutory annual entitlement from 4 to 6 weeks a year, to bring them in line with other Western European neighbours.

Are British workers lucky to get nearly 6 weeks off a year?

In the UK, employees currently have a statutory right to 5.6 weeks annual leave and public holidays can be used to make up the 5.6 weeks (20 days plus 8 days). In Switzerland however, the proposals were voted against because business groups warned that it could be too costly to the economy.

Perhaps us Brits should consider ourselves lucky, especially since last year we enjoyed an additional bank holiday to celebrate the royal wedding and again this year to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – though it doesn’t mean that everyone will be paid for this time off!

So if the additional bank holiday for the Jubilee has thrown your business into confusion, find out more information and some tips here