Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
by Carol-Ann Jordan and Jacqueline Belgrave
If I already had my vacation and I need one month to prepare for my exams, what is the procedure?
We must make it clear at the outset that an employee is not entitled to study leave. There is no legal obligation placed on
your employer to grant you leave so that you can study.
Study leave is a discretionary leave of absence. By discretionary, we mean that the employer is under no obligation, by law, to give an employee time off from work to prepare for examinations, or to prepare projects or to attend classes.
The employment contract with your employer is one in which you agree to carry out specific tasks, in exchange for an agreed salary or wage.
Under the law, you must be given time off from work in the form of vacation. The law also recognises and prescribes that if you are sick and must be absent from work, then your employment will be protected (for a time) until you are fully recovered.
Time off to study is not written into any of the local laws and is a benefit available in some workplaces, not all.
Where the practice of providing study leave obtains, there are policies and procedures in place to guide how it is administered, for example: who can access it, how much time will be approved and how many times per year leave will be granted.
If your company has a policy in place and offers employees study leave, then you can find out more about it and the associated procedures, either from a member of your HR team or your department manager.
You can then be guided by the
information they provide.
If there is no study leave policy at your workplace, you can discuss the matter, either with a member of your HR team or your department manager, to explore if or how your request may be accommodated. In this case, you will be trying to negotiate this on your own and the employer may be unwilling to start this practice.
You have indicated that you require a month’s leave. You may also want to consider the minimum number of days from which you believe you can benefit.
You may also consider proposing a portion as no pay leave – if you can afford it. Be mindful that none of this means that your employer will grant the leave you wish or for the period that you wish.
Your employer will be making his/her decision from the business’ perspective, and will no doubt consider the length of time off that you request, along with other operational requirements e.g. who else will be absent at the same time and what is or may be happening in the department during that time.
If there is no study leave policy at your workplace and your employer chooses not to approve or grant you study leave, there are no other options available to you through which you can access study leave while employed there.
Until such a policy is adopted, you will have to make sure that you schedule and use your vacation leave much more strategically in the future – so that you can successfully balance your educational plans and ambitions with your work obligations.
Can a person be fired for deliberately and knowingly working while infected with COVID-19?
A person cannot be fired for “deliberately and knowingly working while infected with COVID” unless there is a policy in place which states this and in which dismissal is recorded as the applicable sanction.
Disciplinary action may be contemplated when an action is in breach of a workplace policy. In this case, the workplace policy would need to articulate what is and is not acceptable in the light of the presence of the COVID-19 virus.
Additionally, the employer would have had to ensure that all employees were made aware of the policy and the associated sanctions to be applied if it is breached. If this did not take place, then no disciplinary sanction could be considered fair in
the circumstances.
A person can only “knowingly” work while infected with Covid after they have received a positive test result and the presence of the virus is confirmed.
To determine that a person is deliberately working while infected with the virus, the employer would need to prove that the employee had already been tested and came to work despite receiving a positive test result.
Can there be a health and safety issue in the workplace if a person knowingly comes to work with COVID symptoms?
The employer has a responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for all his/her employees. Therefore, the employer should ensure that any person who comes to work exhibiting COVID symptoms does not remain there but goes immediately to be tested and stays away until their status is confirmed.
For this to be more effectively implemented, employers may have to revisit and possibly amend their attendance and sick leave policies and procedures to reflect what current realities demand.
What recourse does an employee have if an employer refuses to put policies in place to protect them?
Employees who are concerned about the absence of clear policies to protect them in the workplace can seek assistance from their Trade Union representatives or, if there is no such representation in their workplace, they can seek guidance from
the Labour Department.
About Lifeline Labour Solutions: Lifeline Labour Solutions is a boutique partnership providing people management solutions to workplace challenges Partners Carol-Ann Jordan and Jacqueline Belgrave are established practitioners with a wealth of knowledge and experience in Employment Relations, Labour Relations and Human Resource Management between them. Email: info@lifelinelabour.com; Tel: 1(246)247-5213.
