With Trinidad and Tobago playing in the World Cup, one of the big headaches for employers will be downtime as football-crazed employees take time off to follow every kick on television.
In the World Cup first round TT plays England on June 15, 2006 at midday. Then on June 20, 2006, the Soca Warriors will take on Paraguay at 3 pm. What is the boss left to do?
Employment law specialist Robyn McIlroy from UK law firm Pinsent Masons has conceptualised the following five things which employers can do to lessen the impact.
1. Holiday bookings
Remind employees of your holiday request procedure, as soon as possible. Point out that requests will be dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis. Remind them that approval will depend on resourcing needs. Bear in mind that, while employees do have statutory and often contractual rights to paid leave, employers and employees can agree when and how leave is to be taken.
2. Flexitime
You could consider introducing a policy of flexible working. This allows employees (with permission) to leave work early enough to watch matches – kick-offs range between midday and 6pm – and to come in later the next day if they anticipate cause for celebration into the night. Think about how this is going to be monitored, however. Be consistent in your application of flexi-working.
3. Drink problems
Attendance at work while still under the influence of alcohol is never permissible. It is a disciplinary offence and it would do no harm to remind employees of that.
4. Managing sickies
Many organisations are concerned about high levels of sickness absence. Some companies have said they will remind employees that levels of attendance will be monitored throughout the tournament. The difficulty with this is that there may be genuine sickness absences in this period. Employers must be careful to avoid making gender-based assumptions about the credibility or otherwise of the reason for absence. Such mistakes could be costly.
5. Be realistic
Accept that a slight dip in productivity during Germany 2006 may be inevitable. A big telly could be the solution.
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