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So you want to watch the World Cup, but you are meant to be at work when it's on: can you play away or is the risk of permanent relegation from your job too high?

Negotiating to win

Check your contract and work policies to see if you have a right to book the time off under flexible working, lieu time or holiday. Your union can also tell you of any policies that might help you. Even if you have the right, you do need to formally book it, and there may be a problem if too many others want the same time off. If a few do want the time off, see if you can agree something between you and put it to management. Having a union negotiator can really help persuade management what a good investment it could be to find ways to let people watch the World Cup, for example allowing people to watch it together at work on a big screen (great team building and a lot cheaper than an ?away day?).

Otherwise, see if your boss will just let you make up the time, or if any colleague would agree to cover your work and have you do something for them, perhaps outside of your normal hours. (You need management approval for this too.)

Just take a ?sickie??

It is quite difficult to prove that someone is not really sick if they have one day off; and most sick policies provide for the employee to self certificate for the first day off. But if you have a few days off which happen to be match days your employer may will notice a pattern to your sickness which might be used as evidence that sickness is not really the issue.

You must comply with any procedure for ringing in to notify of sickness. If your employer is suspicious about your reason for absence then they can take the timing of your sickie and notification of it, and any occupational health records, in to account in deciding on the balance of probabilities if you were really sick, or not.

Amicus is one union resisting a move to getting employees to ring an occupational health line where they have to speak to a nurse who will check their symptoms and may advise them they are not sick enough to be off work.

What if you get caught?

Taking time off work without permission can lead to dismissal for ?gross misconduct?. That would mean that you would not even get any notice pay or pay for untaken holiday: just sacked on the spot no money to come except the pay for your work up to the point of dismissal. Also, lying to your employer about your reason for absence might amount to gross misconduct too.

However if your company disciplinary/absence procedure does not make this clear you can argue that it is simply a form of misconduct which should be viewed in the light of your work record and whether you have any other disciplinary sanctions in force at the time. But if you are already on a final written warning, or any warning to do with breach of trust, you would be taking a big risk if you stay home to watch a match without permission from work.

If you have a union representative they should be able to help you with your arguments an interpretation of procedures, e.g. whether a warning for an ?offence? other than absence counts in determining the seriousness of an absence offence. Lateness and absence are often treated together under the category of ?attendance? for disciplinary purposes. Also check if you work has a ?capability? procedure which governs absences which may be due to sickness.

It will always be a gamble if you can?t get your boss to play on the same team in the World Cup Watching/Work game.