Paternity leave

Get a contractor in to cover the work.

You've known about this for what, 6 or 7 months? Sounds like poor planning tbh.
 
Minstadave said:
Yes you’re going to have to move the job/lose the client if you can’t find a way to do the work without him and take the financial hit.

What would you do if he was sick in the same circumstances?
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It can't be moved or rescheduled, it's an event. If he was sick my business partner would have to cancel his holiday to cover it. He can only do that with warning as he's 6 hours away and the job itself is shorter than that (ie he couldn't do that if the call came on the day). If that couldn't be done then there's not much we could do in any situation like that if the illness only happened on the day of the job (especially as it's 4 hours away from us!).
 
Yep I've worked with plenty of folk who have downed tools and left on the phone call of the misses going into labour leaving us under staffed etc etc and not seeing them again for 2 weeks. You got to just suck it up.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Get a contractor in to cover the work.

You've known about this for what, 6 or 7 months? Sounds like poor planning tbh.
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Known about what? The job being 10 days before his due date? Absolutely. But he only told us he was concerned about doing it this morning. Conversely he's known about it for 2/3 months.

We don't/can't use contractors.
 
Don't be an employer if you can't honor what society has deemed suitable for paternity as well as reasonable adjustments pre birth. Your 50k pittance isn't worth a man/woman missing the birth of their child. Work on your own and don't scale, simples
 
Are both the people on holiday out of the country? The obvious solution to me would to be offer one of them a large bonus for doing the job on their holiday time (be it a large cash bonus and/or extra holiday). That way you don't lose the client, and you can ensure the right person is doing the job.
 
LeeUK said:
Yep I've worked with plenty of folk who have downed tools and left on the phone call of the misses going into labour leaving us under staffed etc etc and not seeing them again for 2 weeks. You got to just suck it up.
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It is increasingly a problem - we operate at the strictest minimum staffing level at work these days so even someone phoning in sick can really mess things up :(

Ahleckz said:
Are both the people on holiday out of the country? The obvious solution to me would to be offer one of them a large bonus for doing the job on their holiday time (be it a large cash bonus and/or extra holiday). That way you don't lose the client, and you can ensure the right person is doing the job.
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Even just contacting someone (depending on job and employment contract, etc.) on their holidays can be a bit of a minefield but that is what I would do - I've had people quite willing to come in before just offering time and a third plus double the days off in lieu as they worked.
 
NiCkNaMe said:
Don't be an employer if you can't honor what society has deemed suitable for paternity as well as reasonable adjustments pre birth. Your 50k pittance isn't worth a man/woman missing the birth of their child. Work on your own and don't scale, simples
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Well that escalated quickly.
 
Slightly off topic from the call scenario, what if he just says he doesn't want to work, in case? Which I totally understand, but equally that's not much different to requesting holiday last minute and there's no guarantees she'll actually go into labour.
 
NiCkNaMe said:
Don't be an employer if you can't honor what society has deemed suitable for paternity as well as reasonable adjustments pre birth. Your 50k pittance isn't worth a man/woman missing the birth of their child. Work on your own and don't scale, simples
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Wind your neck in. "Society" has deemed picking a paternity start date at 15 weeks and requiring 28 days to amend it as "suitable". We haven't even asked him to do that, not to mention he's had at least quadruple the time off for scans and classes over the minimum requirements.
 
Russinating said:
Slightly off topic from the call scenario, what if he just says he doesn't want to work, in case? Which I totally understand, but equally that's not much different to requesting holiday last minute and there's no guarantees she'll actually go into labour.
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Legally this is intersting. Personally I think he has to work legally, but I’m not a lawyer. He probably has to go the 4hrs if demanded of him from a legal stand point. But then he can also drop tools if the labour starts and there’s a risk he’ll just refuse and what will you do then?

If this job is so important to you you need a better solution than bullying him into going and hoping for the best. You probably need to look at recalling someone on leave for an acceptable compensation deal.
 
I don’t think there’s a lot you can do. I guess you could play hard ball and say “if you don’t work then you’re fired”. You’re not discriminating or sacking on the basis of your employee going on paternity leave. However it sounds like you want to keep this guy on. How do you normally arrange for holidays to be covered? Do people have to swap duties? Can your employee arrange their own cover via their coworkers?

I’d be looking at cancelling holiday or hiring a temp.
 
Are you friendly with anyone in the same line of business? Could you ask for support that way if you need someone with specific knowledge and experience?

Based on my own experience, I wouldn't expect someone working for me to work away so close to the due date. My first daughter was 2 weeks early, my second over 3 weeks early.
 
Russinating said:
Like I said we can't cover his time because 2 are off on holiday which was approved as there's almost 2 weeks to go until the due date.
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As someone who has recently had their first child this sounds like poor planning on your part I'm afraid. Due dates for babies are only estimates and yes you should have planned for him being unavailable for at least 2 weeks either side of the due date.

I'm also cant fathom how you would enforce a policy of men picking their paternity leave start date at 15 weeks and then not be able to alter it without 28 days notice? This just isnt possible and I think you are misunderstanding how the rules around this work. Whilst you have to give 28 days notice if you want to change when you paternity starts you are not expected to give a specific date. For example, I would be able to say to you at week 15 "I want to take my paternity on the day of birth". If I then wanted to change this to "I want to take my paternity 1 week after the date of birth" then that would require 28 days notice. But there is no expectation for a new dad to decide at week 15 what date they will go on leave as giving birth simply doesn't work like that. If that were enforced its entirely possible that a mans paternity leave could start and finish before the child was even born. For reference this is backed up here;

https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave/leave

In regards to this specific issue though, I think you are probably correct that you can insit he goes to the job 4 hours away, (Though I dont think you can enforce the overnight stay if he is willing to travel to be there on time at silly AM for example). Though as soon as he gets the call for his partner going into labour then yes, he should absoultely be able to down tools and leave immediately in an effort to get back regardless of what work is being done. However, as an employee, if you were forcing me to do this, I would be pretty annoyed as ultimately you have dropped the ball by allowing two other members of such a small team to go on leave at a time so close to when this person absoutlely has to be on leave with dates that everyone involved should know can't be exactly controlled. Presumabley you've known about his paternity for months now and it's not this persons paternity that's causing the issue, it's the fact that you've allowed two other members of staff to book holiday at the same time.

If I were the manager in this case, I'd be asking one of the other two if there is any possibility they can cancel their holiday to cover for this. If neither can then I think you should be making an effort to suck it up. Patnerity leave is ridiculously short in this country as it is and it's not something you are likely to have to deal with more than a couple of times per individual so making an effort to work around it should really be the expectation.
 
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Thanks @BinnsY, that's helpful, both the info and the perspective. You're right, I'd misread the date requirement (mainly because we didn't ask for it to be given). As I said in the OP I don't know of anyone that's ever gone on paternity leave (neither a friend nor a colleague) so have literally no experience in the matter on a first-hand basis.
 
NiCkNaMe said:
Don't be an employer if you can't honor what society has deemed suitable for paternity as well as reasonable adjustments pre birth. Your 50k pittance isn't worth a man/woman missing the birth of their child. Work on your own and don't scale, simples
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I'd love to know how the woman could miss the birth of her child?
 
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