Childcare is a Valid Reason for Personal Leave
Thursday 20 February 2014 @ 10.35 a.m. | Industrial Law
The Fair Work Commission has deemed a situation where a babysitter was not available for a child was an unexpected emergency giving rise to personal leave. The decision affirms that an unexpected change in childcare arrangements may be considered an “emergency” affecting a family member in some circumstances.
The worker was an employee of the Groote Eylandt Mining Company and was on a seven days-on, seven days-off roster work arrangement. She had arranged for her working period to be the same as her husband and had arranged for a babysitter to care for her son in her absence during his school holidays. Four days prior to the rostered work days, the babysitter became unavailable for personal reasons and the employee was unable to find a substitute.
The company agreement provides for personal leave for employees who have to care for family members because of an unexpected emergency affecting the member. The company thus argued that the babysitter’s unavailability did not amount to an emergency because the employee had four days to arrange for a substitute. Consequently, there was no relevant emergency affecting the child in question.
Vice President Lawler of the Fair Work Commission disagreed with the company. It was found that the babysitter’s unavailability on such short notice was an unexpected emergency. It was also found that the worker had done all she could in the circumstances to arrange to be at work according to her roster.
TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.
