With Olympic fever ahead of the 2012 London Games mounting, many business owners and their human resources teams are facing similar staff requests to those faced by employers in 2002 ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. These staff requests are for time off work in order to take up voluntary roles, for which approximately 78,000 people are expected to provide their services during the Olympic Games from 27th July till 12th August, and the Paralympics from 29th August till 9th September. Due to the uniqueness of the matter, many businesses do not have hard and fast human resources policies to cover such staff requests for absence from work.
Some business owners and their human resources representatives actively encourage their team members to pursue such volunteering opportunities. Other businesses would rather their staff just get on with their jobs. Some are excited by the prospect of their staff being involved in a once in a lifetime global event like the Olympic Games, yet are unsure how to treat requests.
From a purely human resources perspective, businesses are not legally obliged to grant their staff time off for volunteering, or to pay them for doing so. Therefore, businesses firstly need to decide if they can cope with staff absences. Upon agreeing to allow staff time off work for volunteering, businesses also need to decide whether they want to offer a certain number of paid days, whether staff should use their annual holidays entitlements, or if they want to grant unpaid leave.
At NorthgateArinso, we are a leading employment law and human resources specialist. We can help businesses reach fair compromises with staff hoping to volunteer at the Olympic Games. We can also guide them towards fair selection criteria if several of their staff are hoping to provide voluntary services, but some will have to be disappointed. Otherwise, discrimination accusations by disappointed team members could lead to employment tribunal action.
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