Paternity leave

Russinating said:
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.
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Glad it helped :) Ultimately on this one I think it depends on how valuable this guy is to you. If your happy to **** him off and can ultimately replace him then I think you are within your rights to force him to go do the job, and just have to hope he doesn't get the call at a moment that is bad for you. However, if he's someone that is an asset to you this is one of those times where as an employeer it's probably worth you making every effort to accomadate him, as it's the kind of thing that he will remember when he's back and happy workers are productive workers!

Have you also considered that when he gets back after the two weeks he will probably be a sleepless wreck and find doing his job considerably harder for the next few months? ;) Worth factoring that in as well if you haven't already!
 
I do actually think it's reasonable for a (non-pregnant) employee to be expected to continue doing their job, including travelling , two weeks out from due date. Unless there's any real reason to expect things to move quickly.

I also think it's entirely reasonable for that employee to cut short any engagement to make sure he makes the birth, if things do start to move.

What should have happened is that, given the value of the client, the business should have planned to protect itself here, by scheduling cover.
 
Spook187 said:
Work comes second when it comes to family, why are you even asking, not his problem.
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There's always a line to be drawn tho isn't there. What if he'd wanted to only work locally (to his wife) 6 weeks before the due date? 4 weeks? 2 weeks? Just in case?

There's always going to be a judgement call between what's fair from either perspective. Employees and employers are both prone to taking the mick; neither side is always upstanding :p

@the_r_sole : Not a nice situation to be in tho, to be asked to cancel your (potentially planned, paid for) holiday through no fault of your own.
 
FoxEye said:
There's always a line to be drawn tho isn't there. What if he'd wanted to only work locally (to his wife) 6 weeks before the due date? 4 weeks? 2 weeks? Just in case?

There's always going to be a judgement call between what's fair from either perspective. Employees and employers are both prone to taking the mick; neither side is always upstanding :p

@the_r_sole : Not a nice situation to be in tho, to be asked to cancel your (potentially planned, paid for) holiday through no fault of your own.
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if you work as part of a small team and you are a partner who can cover someone who is sick for the day, you can also cover for the same person if they are having a kid!
 
Spook187 said:
Work comes second when it comes to family, why are you even asking, not his problem.
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I know 3 people who have had children born at or around 28 weeks. Does that mean we should all insist we work within half an hour of the nearest hospital from just after mid pregnancy in case things start moving? Obviously not. But at what point do you start saying yes?
 
First kid is always gonna be late, so chances are he could do the work no problem, but yeah if he gets the call then he'll be off like a shot.
 
My opinion is you should’ve planned this a little better and not allowed holiday, as you well state.

What does he do that requires three people vs 2 if one has to leave? Is it a health and safety issue or simply a required numbers type thing?

This doesn’t help you in the here and now though, so I would be having a chat with him and say look, we’re in a bind with this one chap, I need you to go to the job, but if your wife calls then please do let us know and shoot off as soon as you get the call.

I’d also tell him it’s OK if he doesn’t want to do the over night stay, but he is responsible for travel to/from location (assuming he drives) if he doesn’t want an overnight stay whilst his missus is expecting.

And with regards maternity leave when I had it it’s either on the date of the birth of the child or a nominated date afterwards. Both jobs I worked I left as soon as I got called, one time I was at a managers conference at carphone and hot tailed it out of there to get to the hospital and the other I was in a car dealership and left.

She might even be in labour for hours from when her water breaks.
 
This reminds me of my brother shutting down the power station a couple of years ago. Our mum was ill and we both received a call to get to the hospital quickly (she's recovered now). The company had left them running it on minimum staff to save costs. He tried to get someone to replace him but no-one was available. If he left then the station would be running withw too few people which was against safety regulations.

So he shut it down and left, causing the company y to lose a whole lot more than they saved with staffing levels :D

Sorry if your kettle was on at the time :D
 
What about putting his mrs up in the same hotel? That way if she goes into labour then at least he will be close by. I'm assuming she has started mat leave already.
 
You can't really do that. What if she has planned to have a home birth, or water birth or something like that.

All her plans would be messed up because she is then hours away from home.
 
Our baby was due on the 27th Sep, my wife was due to be induced on the 20th, our daughter decided neither of these dates were convenient and arrived on the 17th.

Even though I planned everything with my clients based on my wife going into hospital on the 20th they were all very understanding and worked around the unexpected arrival. The people who were due to cover (other contractors) had been given leave the w/c 17th Sep. My client just sucked it up as they admitted they planned it badly.

Babies have a habit of turning up when they want to and while I understand your position you should have allowed for some contingency.
 
Didn't the OP mention his business partner was on holiday and would be the only one to replace him.

Sorry, but as a boss that is the sort of thing you have to do. It's your company so you are a lot more invested in it to make sure you don't lose clients/money than the employee who has a right to be at the birth of his child.
 
It sounds like poor planning, which sadly will impact a smaller company in a way that it wouldn't with a large one. He should 100% expect to down tools imediately, and if I were him I'd be pretty miffed if you can't accomodate him being closer to home if the birth of baby is imminent. As most people have said, I'd consider how much you want him to be a happy, loyal employee. Also, be glad you're not in other countries like spain where they get 5 weeks paternity! :)
 
To be honest, I'm with your employee here.

From anywhere up to 4 weeks before the official due date, the pregnant mother can start to experience "false labour" where it feels like labour but later stops. My wife had exactly this, and several times I got called away from a job because she was experiencing "false labour". Even if your employee went to site, I would very much expect that he'd get called away even if it's just a false alert.

You need to find a way to work around this if the event is so important. You had enough notice, it's your mistake to have approved holiday for other employees over this period for something so important.
 
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