Holidays Bring Security And Domestic Staffing Issues
Holiday time is here again and some you will be going off on a family trip leaving domestic staff staff behind to look after the house, while others will be taking staff away with them.
So let’s look at a few pointers to enjoying your time away:
If you are taking your housekeeper or other staff with you on holiday, ensure that they are in possession of any relevant visas for the country or countries you will be visiting.
If this is your first experience in this respect, we advise not taking anything for granted and check before arrangements are made. The optimum is for staff to have a British passport, but if this is not the case, then for a useful overview on visa requirements, the website below is worth a visit.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-home-office-travel-document/overview
For visa requirements within the Schengen Zone (Europe) see below
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-application-requirements/
Information on domestic staff accompanying their clients for travel to the USA can be found on:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa/entry-requirements
For all other countries refer to their relevant embassies in the UK for advice.
Taking staff with you may well bring about the situation of leaving your home empty in your absence, if so your thoughts should go to ensuring you take all available precautions, mainly against intrusion and theft, but not forgetting home safety, fire risks etc.
It is a fact that 60% of burglaries occur when there is no one at home.
Below is a link for a useful holiday security check list, that maybe worth a look, just to prompt your thinking.
If your preference is to leave domestic staff at home while you go away, are you able to control when they take their leave, so ensuring that it does not coincide with yours?
If you already know your dates before your employee commences employment with you, dates in which they cannot take their annual leave can be stipulated in their contract of employment, however, what if this is not written into the contract, but the employee has been with you for some years and you have consistently asked them not to take holidays during a set period to which they have agreed?
This is implied into the terms and conditions through custom and practice, in other words, through consent it has become the norm and so effectively becomes a working practice.
It must, of course, be recognised that all such restrictions only apply during a defined period of time and that the employee must be allowed to take their full leave during the year in which it was accrued.
The Graham Agency, keeping you informed.