Managing employee attendance at work during the 2012 Olympics

Employment law specialist, Joanne White, answers your questions about managing employee attendance during the 2012 Olympics.

Generally speaking, employees will fall into one of the following categories. Those who plan to:-

• take time off during the Olympic Games to act as a volunteer – confirmation to successful applicants has yet to be announced
• take time off because they have bought tickets for certain events
• take time off for a reason unconnected with the Olympic Games but who feel that people who have a connection with the Olympics are being treated more favourably

The main issue you face as an employer is likely to be managing attendance. If you know this is likely to be an issue in the summer, you should start discussing it with your staff now.

If you already have a holiday policy in place, you may wish to keep things simple and follow that policy. This is likely to include a rule that time off will be granted on a “first come first served” basis. Whilst this approach is totally acceptable, you may need to deal with employees who have bought tickets for events before booking holiday. Depending on what your holiday policy says, this may be a case of “unauthorised absence” if the employee takes the time off without authority and so you may wish to establish early on, if you have any employees who fall into this category.

A less formal approach may be to apply a flexible working policy for the duration of the Olympics. This is more likely to be applicable to those employees who do not want to take a lot of time off but who may wish to watch a particular event on certain days during normal working hours. Whether or not this will work will obviously depend on the structure and needs of your business but it is a useful way to maintaining good morale within the workforce.

You may experience problems with staff watching lengthy coverage of the Olympic Games on their computers during normal working hours or failing to turn up for their shift following attendance at the Olympic Games or watching it on TV at home. You may wish to consider planning for popular sporting events in advance – perhaps give staff access to a TV during agreed times, provided they make up that time later on in the day/week etc. However, ultimately, there is no legal right to take time off to watch or volunteer at the Olympics and so performance issues should be dealt with under your normal disciplinary procedure. It is advisable to warn staff of this in advance of the start of the Olympics.

If you would like to find out more about this or any other employment issues contact Joanne White at joanne.white@lindermyers.co.uk