I attended a job interview once and was congratulated upon being appointed to the role. The first question asked was, " Have you made any holiday arrangements for this year"? This wasn't to tell me hard luck. It was so that HR could schedule my holidays into the company diary. That's in the UK.
Yes, this is a pretty standard question for new staff and one I've been asked in every job I've taken over the last 40+ years here in the UK. In one case, I was due to start a two week holiday on the day I was expecting to commence employment. The employer moved the start date forward a couple of days so I could finish the induction paperwork before I went away (on full pay, of course).
When I was a kid, we all wanted to be American, probably because of the TV shows we watched. Everything seemed so much better in the US. The more I learn about the US law, culture and attitudes, the more I appreciate being a UK citizen.
@@lalaemm5985 The US TV shows always showed high school as some big great fun experience with jocks and nerds and pretty girls and football practice and prom... They seldom showed the metal detectors at the entrances, armed secuyrity guards, or kids doing active shooter drills
@@keithskelhorne3993 I'd say they're *technically* (and possibly accidentally) correct if you consider that the wages you're entitled to for your labor rightfully belong to you, and lazy, miserly employers are the ones who will bend over backwards to do everything they can to avoid giving you what you're owed.
I lived and worked in the US for six years. As a Brit, it makes me so happy to be British because this resonates so much and don't get me started on taxes and the US Healthcare System. Got taxed to death over there. We Brits don't know how lucky we are.
Neither are human rights because both require someone do something often without remuneration. Health care is affordable, if we didn't have to spend several hundred dollars a month on insurance that refuses to pay out.
@@hitandruncommentor So healthcare isn't affordable then. Even without you're extortionate health insurance your hospitals and doctors charge absolutely ridiculous fees for everything and don't get me started on the prices of your drugs and prescriptions which are also ridiculous and extortionate and you spend more on healthcare than any other country in the world. In all other countries healthcare is a human right, only in America it isn't. America is one of the least free countries in the world, American people are just brainwashed and indoctrinated to think otherwise. You couldn't pay me to live in the shithole that is the USA
@@hitandruncommentor if you believe having holidays is not a right, you are the problem Americans have. As for the healthcare, I was on an American group with a colleague who has been diagnosed COPD and has to buy an inhaler which costs 700+$. In the UK it costs 30£ (but it comes for free on prescription). Tell me again how affordable 🤨
I was on holiday in the US once for 2 weeks and got speaking to an American couple doing the same (it was the Grand Canyon so they were still on holiday). They’d saved up holiday for like 2 years for one blow out 2 week trip away. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I had another 3 and a half weeks of holiday I HAD to take that year. We genuinely get emails from managers panicking that we haven’t taken enough holiday that year when the end of the period is coming up.
I'm in the UK and now retired but when I worked, I had cancer in 2016 so I was off work for 10 months. I had full pay for the first six months and half pay for the rest. When I went back, I was phased back into work and still had six weeks holidays to use up.
Glad you were in the UK when you got ill Chris and I hope you're doing well now. It's traumatic enough having something like that to go through, but the stress must be horrific in the US system.
@@chrisy8989 which is a branch of the council , and runs as a side by side body . Semi independent but part of the council in all but name..the money the so called charity which they all are is paid for by tax payers money . I know because I've worked with one . Social housing companies are government funded .ergo public sector.
Here’s me in the UK thinking there must be more to life, when I get 29 days plus bank holidays. When my mum died, I had over 3 weeks off paid. I maybe need to be more grateful for my work situation.
I just recently learned that in my country (Sweden) we can get our holidays back if we happen to get ill during our payed leave... as in, you should call in to work even though you're on vacation to let them know you've gotten sick and they will return the vacation days and put you on sick days instead. And then you can have that vacation for later. We get more pay for vacation than sick days but who wants to spend their holiday being sick? Having to take vacation days when you're sick seems insane in comparison...
Same goes in Belgium. The company will return your planned vacation days and just jot them down as sick days. The only thing needed is a note of a doctor. And yes, they get paid.
I work in the UK, and when my father died a couple of years ago my employer gave me plenty of time off, and I was fully paid during that period. What my manager said was "take as much time as you need" - so I was able drop everything & visit my Dad in hospital, then later I took a week or so off to help my Mum make arrangements for the funeral, and spent a couple of days on the phone chasing down insurance policies, and claiming pension payments etc. because my employer was being reasonable, I behaved the same way - working when I could manage it without breaking into tears. I am very glad I don't live in the US.
Very similar with me , I was told come back when you're ready , but after three weeks I was glad to go back to take my mind of things ,, but that was my choice , I suppose it's not so bad here in G.B.
I'm in the UK, in 2018 i started a new job, 3 days later my sister unexpectedly passed away. My manager told me the same thing. I took 2 weeks off, was paid 5 days worth of wages then went back to work after 2 weeks so i could keep my mind off things.
When I was sick I was expected to stay away from work. The reason given was that, if I went into work with a viral infection I would spread it to my colleagues. This makes sense to me as I worked in a small team of 20. I used to hate people who attender work sniffling and coughing all over the place. I am from Scotland.
Quite, same where I work long before COVID and homeworking became the default, it would be do not come in even if you only have a cold and WFH if you can instead. There was nothing worse when I was an office worker than that one person who would come in to 'be a martyr' infecting everyone else on the team.
I used to work in a hotel that required us to have a fitness to work certificate before we were allowed back to work so it was off to the doctor to prove we were sick and back to the doctor to prove we were not sick if you were found to be sick and in work you risked being written up for it
Most rights British workers enjoy were won decades ago by people like me who joined trade unions and fought for them. Sadly, today too many (particularly the young) harbour the hideous idea that these rights were somehow bestowed by a motherly EU or freely gifted by benificent governments, and do not join trade unions to protect themselves or the rights their fathers and grandfathers won for them. They'll regret it.
I really can't believe that anybody seriously pretends that workers right come from the EU; workers were fighting for those in a lot of countries long before the EU. Sorry, but that sounds suspiciously like a straw argument à la "oh those terrible pro-EU people are trying to pretend ....!!!" Sure, and also good British fishers need to wear hair-nets, that was a cute one, too.
I've only ever heard EU mentioned in relation to it due to other EU countries also having similar laws in place that protect the worker, not because they came FROM the EU.
Before I retired, my wife passed away in 2016, she became suddenly blind, she was rushed to hospital, I was told by my employer to take as much time as I needed, when it became obvious that her Illness was very serious my boss told me that I was on full pay for as long as needed. She passed away eight weeks later. My boss and half the depot came to her funeral service. Again I was told to take as much time as I needed. I did return to work ASAP as being home alone was driving me nuts but my employer reiterated again that I didn't have to go back so soon.
I was sick one time but I decided to "man up" and go to work because it was "nothing". I was the only male at the time. At noun, my boss (female) saw me almost dying on my desk (not literally) and proceeded to scold me for 20 minutes for even coming to work and drove to the nearest hospital, despite my protests, and ask a doctor to examine me. After the doctor was finished, I was driven home with clear instructions to not show my face at work until I feel better after the doctor gave me 7 sick days.
Here in Australia (I am now going to blow your mind!), we get paid 17.5% extra wages when we go on vacation. It's called 'leave loading' and, hey, you need extra money to go on holiday, right?
We also have the National Employment Standards (NES) that are 11 minimum STATUTORY employment entitlements that have to be provided to all employees (casual employees only get 6 entitlements) that cannot be contracted out by either employee or employer (ie: cannot remove them) This means things like maximum 38hrs per week (overtime is after that at 150% and 200%, and cannot be mandated), paid public holidays, minimum personal days (no longer called sick days), termination notice periods, redundancy payments, long service leave, family/DV leave, 4 weeks annual leave per year, flexible working arrangements, mandatory offers and requests to convert from casual to permanent employmentmust after 6 months. Etc Etc Superannuation is a separate Statutory mandated scheme (10.5% of wage/salary to be paid by employer AFTER wages paid). Workers Compensation is mandated for ANY injuries at work whether it was your fault or not (unless its grossly negligent or reckless). Occupational Health and Safety laws are absolute and Risks must be mitigated with not doing so being a CRIMINAL offence (for directors, managers, and company) and the breach does NOt require injury just the unreasonable potential for injury. This is for ALL employees and employers.
In Germany some jobs (mostly heavy unionized working area) got a so called 13th (and sometimes 14th) Salary - often close to 75% of a full month salary. 13th is at December ("Weihnachtsgeld" - Christmas Salary), 14th is in summer ("Urlaubsgeld" - Vacation salary).
For context on sick pay in the UK, you have "statutory sick pay" which is the little bit that he mentioned there (paid by the government), but most office jobs and above also have some allocated days of sick pay (at my job you are eligible for like 6 weeks of full pay sick pay after working here for 6 months). You have to show them you are actually sick, but that's not too hard. HR aren't looking to put you out and get themselves sued
To add, most staff employed on a salary basis (fixed hours for fixed pay, e.g. 37 hours per week, £30,000 per year pay) have sick pay as one of their benefits, along with things like medical insurance, company cars, gym memberships, holidays above the legal minimum. However Casual staff (on a contract with 0 guaranteed hours, a lot of restaurant staff, bar staff etc) do not get these benefits and get the legal minimum, and Statutory sick pay, and get nothing until the 4th day of illness (does not need to be 4 work days). These are the people normally living pay check to pay check and can not afford those first 3 days without pay so in turn are more likely to turn up sick even in the UK
I'm eligible for up to a year on full pay if sick then a review and 6months of 2/3 pay. 32 days vacation/holidays not including bank holidays. Full pension where my employer has to double my contribution. I've just had compassionate leave for a month on full pay to help care for my partner who is having Chemotherapy for Acute Myeloid leukemia ( this does not come out of either my holidays or sick leave )
@@grumpyratt2163 I hope he is getting better. That's a horrible card to be dealt. I to had to take time off as my husband was having radiology of a one month period. On the odd day when he was good between treatments i did go in but when it came to my time sheets my boss said just put down what looks reasonable and she signed it all off and I didnt lose any money at all, full pay throughout.
@@9Mtikcus Most people in the UK don't earn 30k a year though. 43% of Brits pay no income tax because their earnings are below the tax allowance which is almost 1/3 of 30,000.
@Writeous0ne you will notice the e.g. as example of how a salary is structured. Yes lots are paid less, and for a lot SSP is all they get was my point. That it is not everyone with great sickness benefits
Good video :) As a UK citizen I find it slightly ironic that the USA fought a war of independence to escape “tyrannical” British rule… to end up with less rights in “the land of the free”… something is basically wrong for the average American citizen :(
It's really sad that new parents in America are almost proud of how little time they spend with the new baby. I've heard stories of the manager saying stuff like I had my baby on Monday. I took one day off, and I'm back to work like it's something to be proud of. No wonder, why kids can grow up and never see their parents, it's almost like the royal family. King Charles III said that before he was closer to his nanny, then he was his own mother. Which is really sad. You disappear from your child's life. They don't even notice.
I think lot's of Americans are shocked when they visit and find out what it's like to work here in Canada. The things we get time off for are like most of the normal Countries like sick and vacation pay, bereavement leave which depending on the company can include pet's. We have laws protecting the employee not the employer.
Thanks Alan! It is amazing, that you still find the energy and joy, to do these videos educating the US audience. I think, that the Tube has become the most important "education"/learning method/platform for so many clueless "Americans", that they should have like "mandatory" lessons, like yours, to be able to move on to "normal" videos!! Best Regards from Finland!
Here is a strange one for you. My dad worked for the NHS. (6 months sick pay) He suddenly became ill and was fitted with a Stoma in the same hospital place he worked in. He was in intensive care for over a year in lockdown and almost died several times due to bad care. To this day he is still awaiting surgery from a specialist in Manchester. They paid his full pension and wages to the end of his working life as if he was to be still working at the place. He can't have the surgery at the place he worked at because they are not capable. They expected him to die. We have a running joke, I owed him a tenner and he wouldn't leave without getting it. Tight, Scottish, and pig headed.
UK based - I can take 5 days off ill on full pay without having to provide any kind of confirmation. After that I could get up to 6 months full pay per year before moving onto SSP. If I had to leave work completely due to illness or was diagnosed with a critical illness I would get 4x my annual salary. For holidays I get 30 a year plus the 8 bank holidays on full pay.
The "reasonable amount of time" for a bereavement is an interesting example for how British law works. It's all about precedent. At some point in time somebody will have been fired for taking too much time off after a death and taken the employer to a tribunal and won. Thus setting a legal precedent that X amount of weeks off does fall within the bound of "reasonable". That will then have the standard that most companies will know they have to allow as a minimum.
UA-cam wouldn't let me post the whole story if you want all of it ask me. Something missed by both about maternity leave. Most pregnant women won't even get hired if they know you are pregnant or they make it so you quit or find any reason to fire you. Happened to me. I'm 8 months pregnant and out of a job and struggling so hard because of it. Even though I put in for my maternity leave I didn't even get to make it to that maternity leave. They denied me a place to sit despite filling out an ADA Form, despite my doctor writing to them that it was medically necessary. Despite me practically begging as I cried every night once my 8-9 hour shift was over with only my "30 minute" lunch to sit. Which btw I had to walk across the entire warehouse (it was a very popular wholesale club. I worked at the bakery at the back.) up a large flight of stairs just to clock out for lunch. Go back down a flight of stairs just so i could use the restroom, wait in a very long line just to get something "quick" to eat. Finally go back up those same flight of stairs, sit down for maybe 7-10 minutes. Eat, clock back in from lunch then go back down those same flight of stairs and across the warehouse to the back where my department was. In order to take my "15 minute" break i would have to do all that but by the time i got to the top of the stairs i would only have 2 minutes to sit before i had to go back so it was pointless and never ended up taking my breaks. Which is why I was begging to be able to use a foldout stool that I BOUGHT with my own money. I literally left work everyday in tears. My night shift coworkers would always help me to my car to make sure I got to it safely as they knew by the end of the day I could barely walk. They were very worried I would fall especially with all the black ice on the parking lot and very poor lighting if any where they made us park. I literally cried in my car for 5 minutes straight every night i had to work before getting back out of my car once i got home because the pain was so great and I didn't want my husband to worry about me or the baby or for him to see me in that state. (I grew up in the ghetto and you aren't supposed to show weakness like that. You're supposed to just suck it up i guess and deal with it.) He was already stressed about his job and I just didn't want to add to it. By the time i got to my bed it was already anywhere from 9:30pm - 10:30pm at night depending on when I was able to leave work (You don't get to leave work til the work is done). Once I was in bed. I was in so much pain I literally could not get back out of it for any reason. Not to eat, bathe or use the restroom. Whatever I still had on is what i'm sleeping in as I could barely move to even take it off, if I didn't take it off before getting into bed. My husband would bring me water and dinner and would take away once I was done. Sometimes I'd fall asleep in the middle of eating. The day I got that answer from my manager though I finally confessed everything to him. ("If you want. You can go into the back hall and call Sedgewick right now and see if they can do anything and maybe they will approve it by the time you give birth. HAHAHAHAHAHA" was the answer i got from manager btw) He told me I HAD to quit. There was no way I could continue the way its been going. Especially for mine and the baby's health. He (the baby) wasn't moving when I was so stressed and in pain while working. He'd only move around a lot when I had my days off. So I put my two weeks in and that manager never really showed her face during my last two weeks there. Other things happened too. I got a lot of snide remarks from the morning staff. They were/are absolutely awful people. Other than a couple of people in the morning and my night shift co workers the majority of them were always insulting me in a way that others wouldn't pick up but i knew what they meant or would gaslight me, do things on purpose to make my job harder, etc etc. Even when i returned to the store as a "club member" after the fact just shopping for some essentials (like buying toilet paper in bulk) one of them flagged me down just to insult me and then ran off when my husband caught up to me. When I told my hubby what happened he said she was lucky he was out of ear shot. He said he would have been petty and made a scene to try and get her fired. Anyway health wise I've been doing incredibly better. Financially we are now struggling because no one is going to hire a pregnant woman so late in pregnancy now. My hubby lost his job illegally btw and never got his last paycheck. But that's a different story.
My last job was with the UK branch of a US company. We have a flexible benefits system that allowed us to take 28 to 35 days of paid holiday each year, 8 of which would be designated bank holidays . The US parent company offers 11 designated holidays and 13 days of flexible vacation, increasing to 18 after 3 years. After my mother died there were several delays and I waas given 3 weeks off until after her funeral. We got up to 6 months of full pay. I used 2 weeks once when I had my tonsils removed (had to isolate afterwards).
It is a poor understanding of profit and loss, when companies look at sick pay as a cost, rather than a benefit to them in the long run. 2 days off for 1 person who has the flu, compared to real drop in productivity of 4 or 5 people catching the flu off that 1 person, and then 4 more catch it, and eventually you have a 25% of your workforce sick for 4 to 5 days, over a 3 month period.
Just as a comparison I work from home full-time in the UK. This year I have 28 days of annual leave, 8 public bank holidays plus 1 additional for the King's coronation and 5 annual leave days carried-over from last year because I didn't use them all, so 42 days off this year on full pay. Why would I EVER work in the USA??
Hi from the UK 👋 🇬🇧 my wife was off work for a year and a half with cancer she was paid 100 % for the first year then 75 % for six months when she went back to the same job that they had to keep open for her plus all her cancer treatment is paid for by our tax system and she will have to take medication for the rest of her life which is free
My goddaughter works HR for an American company and they asked her what they would need to do to open up in the UK. She told them "change your entire business model".
@@charlestaylor3027 it was a genuine question (with a little bit of sneer in there just in case). I just wondered whether you were implying something, like ‘you’ll never get investment from US companies unless you lessen those regulations!’ Or maybe ‘can you believe the attitude of those bloomin’ US companies?’. I wasn’t sure
By the time I finished my last job I had accrued 67 unused paid sick days. When my father was diagnosed with cancer he used 9 months of accrued paid sick leave - treatment without needed to worry about wage coming in.
A nice feature about UK sick/holiday times is that they are completely separate. I’ve fallen ill on holiday before and told my boss “Oh hey, I was sick for two days last week, I need you to reimburse those two holiday days and mark them as sick days instead”, so I got two days holiday allowance back.
In Australia we get an average 4 weeks paid annual leave. Lets say you get sick for a week during your four weeks off (for the sake of the exercise, you need not usually take off all four weeks at a time). You can notify your employer, present a medical certificate and have that weeks annual leave replaced with sick leave pay and you retain that weeks annual leave, which you get to use later.
having worked in a few countries across Europe I can say that the US sounds very medieval in workers rights. For most Eu countries, a doctor's visit is free. Also, in general you may get 1 - 3 days of unpaid sick leave each time you get sick (don't stay home for every snotty nose you have effectively) but if you do stay sick for long term you generally get 60 - 80% of your average salary as paid sick leave (anything over 2 - 4 weeks is generally government paid) and for long term illness you should have regular (think every 2 - 4 weeks depending on the illness) doctor's checks to make sure you're not faking it. The companies can generally ask you to visit an independent doctor after some time to ensure there's a 2nd set of eyes looking out for not just you but also for the company
A very similar story to others who have already posted. I got a call late at night telling me my Mother was in hospital and that she wouldnt be coming out. Phoned my manager at work ( when they were in ) and she asked me to keep her updated. A few hours later my mum slipped her mortal coil ,, when I phoned my manager she told me to stay away from work for at least a week and if I needed more time it wasnt an issue. The company paid me for my time off which was a week & it didnt come out of my holiday pay. I told them I would like to make an emergency holiday request for the Funeral ,, Nope ,, they made me take the day and following day off full pay.
In the UK past 20h/w is considered full time and part timers have the same benefits regardless. Approval is still usually required but it is very unlikely to be rejected because if you can proove they didn't allow you to take your government mandated days off they will be in trouble. Its mostly just a negociation of when is less busy.
unions and local organizing have historically been among the most effective ways to fix problems like these. if people made the problem people can fix the problem. unions not acting effectively in your area its up to you and your neighbors to fix them. its annoying but nothing gets better if everyone just sits on their hands.
The bottom line failure in various business practices is forgetting one simple fact. Without people, you have no business. Without good people, you only have a bad business. If you are expecting these employees to have any regard AT ALL for your company and you are hoping to leave it in their "careful" hands day to day.... I would suggest that you look after those people, especially the good ones. I think as soon as a few large employers in the states start offering proper work benefits and conditions, as soon as there is competition which proves, happy, easy go, comfortable workers work twice as hard and care about the business twice as much, it may be a landslide change. I have my fingers crossed for you!
I once worked for a company in the UK ,where were given 4 weeks holiday a year ,which was great ,what wasn't great ,because the company decided to shut down for 2 weeks over Christmas ,you had to save 2 weeks of your holiday,so you got paid , Meaning your stuck at home because the weather is terrible,,Then when the time you actually wanted time off ,the rule was only one person per week off Which meant if you didn't get to the boss first to book the time ,you had very dodgy weeks because the summer months had already gone
My last company gave me 100% sick pay for six months per year, dropping down to 80% after that. I was very very unwell, to the point I parted ways with them and presently am in no fit state to work.
It may sound naive, but I can't quite get my head round why US workers have allowed such an extreme situation to develop - I'd have thought people would be up in arms! Americans are always banging on about their "rights", but seemingly not regarding this fundamental issue. If your government or unions won't protect the workers, one would think they'd be forming new unions that actually represent their members. It's this defeatist docility that mystifies and infuriates me. If we're forced to work (as we are, to pay for our basic needs), and the employer alone entirely stipulates the conditions under which we work, then it really is slavery.
One of the things he didn't mention - if you don't take all your holiday days, a lot of companies will either pay you for the holiday days, or they will let you carry all or some of them over to the next year. Or if you leave a job and have worked 50% of the year, but only taken 25% of the holiday for that year (for eg), then you get paid for the holiday days you haven't taken - they're considered your holiday days, so you get paid.
I think most UK companies are really good when it comes to compassionate leave. My Mum was very ill and in hospital towards the end of her life. My Dad was given time off work to spend time in the hospital with her (a few weeks at least) and then after she died, he got several more weeks to sort the funeral/grieve etc. All fully paid I believe. I don't know anyone who's ever been denied as much time as they need when someone has died. People don't go and take the mick by asking for months off, it's usually anywhere between a few days (if it was something like a grandparent) to a few weeks (sibling/parent). Someone I know lost a grandparent and found at at the end of the working day. They informed their manager they'd be taking at least the next day off (notice I say informed, not asked) and that they'd call people then and send emails to cancel appointments for the following day. The manager told them to log off everything now and that they'd do it instead and for this person to just go be with their family and let them know the following day how much time they thought they'd need. My friend ended up taking 2 or 3 days off then plus one a few weeks later for the funeral. None of it was a problem. Meanwhile in the US, someone in a facebook group I'm in posted about how their Dad had died and they weren't even allowed to leave work early that day after finding out. They were also denied the time off to go to the funeral and got told if they went anyway, they'd lost their job. It's insane.
Evan did some really eye opening comparisons on Us/UK grocery shopping. Suffice to say you pay in some cases 4 times as much as we do. Honestly Alan, sometimes, a lot of the time, I think you're being scammed by everybody who's supposed to have your best interests at heart. BTW when are you emigrating 😊
Actually, Jane, for a lot of things prices are lower than in the UK. Most fruit and veg are home grown, whereas we have to import a lot and since Brexit it's not worth it for a lot of suppliers to jump through the hoops. So we get shortages = higher prices, in addition to transport costs.
@@patriciamcl54 were actually still cheaper on most groceries than the US, and where exactly do you live? Because I have not run out of anything at any time since Brexit.
I can assure you that even though here in the UK we get 4 weeks of bookable holiday we can't just announce what days we want as that could leave the company with no workforce at times of the year like school holidays so we basically put in a request for approval.
For a long time here in the UK we had Personnel Departments but in the past 25 years this has become known as Human Resources. I have often wondered if this sets a mind set that you are no longer a person but have become a resource just like a lump of metal. I have in the past worked for two US Companies, AT&T and a company called Parker Hannifin, with both of them I received much better benefits than people doing the same job in the US. In fact with the second of those companies we had the option to carry forward one of our weeks holiday to the next year, so if for example I wanted to go on a long haul holiday I could take only three weeks one year but five weeks the next. We also had the option to sell our holidays back to the company at double time. When working at AT&T hidden away in the employee manual there was the option to be given a discount card if you were to go on holiday to Disney that entitled you to a 25% discount on park entry because AT&T sponsored an exhibit in Epcot. As I understand it one of the reasons unions in the US are so weak is because they were infiltrated by organised crime who would allow themselves to be bought off by the employers.
Yes, I remember when it was personnel then became HR now a lot of large firms are doing away with it all together the company I worked for does not have either anymore nor the company my wife worked for for 30yrs✌️
@@martindunstan8043 Yep sub-contracting out to agencies, it kind of tells you just how highly they value their employees when they are willing to let people with no knowledge of their staff manage their employment needs.
Perth Australia here... I was pregnant and I remember you have to just let them know and I have to be off work by 34 weeks but you can work up to 36 weeks with doctors note. 18 weeks of maternity leave thru Centrelink. After 18 weeks you can use your Annual leave or long service leave or just unpaid up to 2 years. When you return your job is still there for you.
Looking after your employees is simply good business practice. Workers who are physically and mentally well and that have been in their perspective roles for a long time obviously are better at their job and therefore more productive, better with quality, customer service, more responsible, caring...etc. Since the USA is so focused on profit why can't they see the long term benefits of long term employees? 🤷♂️
7:58. Union organizers have been the target of corporate media since they started to gain some small concessions from exploitative big business. The propaganda has been pervasive, and persuasive. Here in the UK the same tactics have been used for decades, encouraging workers to vote against their best interests and defend their abusers. It costs the corporations much less to corrupt the unions, than to give decent terms and conditions to workers. If you don't organize to demand a reasonable return for your labor, companies will continue to strip away your rights, until you will be nothing more than bonded slaves.
Paid sick leave should be a statutory thing in my opinion with some safeguards in place for the company of course. But I also think an employer that is pragmatic about it is more likely to foster a greater level of trust with their staff. My current company were amazing during my struggles with mental health (my previous company gaslit me beyond belief where I almost ended it all) and even granted me compassionate leave with pay. 4 years later I am still with this company, healthy, happy and utterly in love with the people I work for. They stood by me and obviously had faith that I would pull through. Most of all I think this was down to having honest dialogue about my problems. I never had to lie to them, because they never judge me or frowned upon any medical issue. They trusted the relationship.
I have a new American colleague, she had a migraine and told her to go to rest...come back when felt better be it the next day or next week. We even checked she'd registered with a GP as new to the UK.
I remember watching a clip from a news organisation that questioned some restaurant owners, store managers/ owners during the last presidential election campaign, when the pledge to raise the minimum wage to livable minimum wage, the answer they all gave was they would slash staff if the minimum wage was increased more than $1.00 .
The thing is that all those worker's rights in Europe were not handed over on a silver platter to the workers. They had to fight for it and sometimes paid the price in blood. The unions in Germany are still very strong and fight for higher wages or other benefits. As May 1st is approaching, I'd like to remind the Amercans that you "invented" this day. So thank you for that and perhaps it is time to fight for your rights again. Greeting from Germany
In Australia, entitlements are set out in the National Employment Standards. Full time employees get 28 holidays a year, plus Federal and State Publjc Holidays. Your leave starts accruing as soon as you start the job. There is also sick leave, parental leave and special leave.
Minimum wage workers are treated appallingly in the US, not just the poor pay and lack of benefits but some customers also seem to think they can abuse them because they are perceived as losers in a society obsessed with success and celebrity.
In Germany, there often (not always) are caps on allowed overtime, so there's a small amount of hours you can use for emergencies or just that extra day. This goes together with companies wanting you to take your vacation days - **instead of a payout* : They won't have to pay them out while, depending on your tax bracket, it's not really worth it anyway. Laws also are in place in order to keep you from just stacking our comparatively generous vacation days in order to make a payout actually worth it or be gone for months. At least up until covid, we could generally take over a few days to the next year, provided they were taken in the 1st quarter. Thus a lot of parents would do just that and take vacation right at the beginning of the year, since their kids would be on school break until around Jan 6th -without using up new vacation days. 😂
I am from England, 2007 I had an Operation on my right shoulder, 7 months off sick whilst having physio, 6 months on sick pay, one month on ESA, then back to work on light duties for a couple of months. Also my younget son's girlfriend had a baby, she was feeling the stress of breaking up with my son, she decided to hand in her resignation to he employer MacDonalds, they turned it down and gave hern another 6 months Maternity leave. they are back together.
Hi, Alan. I appreciated your responses to the main part of the video, but was struck by your strong feelings in the latter section of the video. I understand them, but, personally, all I have in mind at the moment are the two mass shootings in the last few days in the US, and to read that 'there have been at least 160 mass shootings across the US so far this year.' (BBC, 2023). It truly bewilders me, and makes my heart ache. Robert, uk.
I don't like mass shootings happening here either. It's one reason we need more than Universal Background checks here. We have 330 million citizens, and 400 million guns. It could be a lot worse.
this video immediately made me think of how many disgruntled workers there must be and how many result in workplace shootings and how many people are living so unhappy making them vulnerable to violent thoughts.
@@TheEclecticBeard ...Those figures are astonishing. I do suspect, regrettably, shootings will increase in the year to come. There's a lot of anger out there. Thank you for taking the time to reply. Robert.
You're speaking facts. I've seen so many comments saying people just need to stand up for themselves, get a union, walk out, but most employers here think of the word "union" as a dirty word. If they get wind of union forming, they will fire anyone involved & they will get away with it because they can terminate your employment for any reason or none at all. Besides, the way the laws are if you work for a smaller company, there would be no way you could bring a union in with a smaller number of employees. Their attitude is that there is always someone waiting in the wings to take your job, and sadly that's true. Even during truck drivers (Teamsters Union) strikes during the eighties, there were always so-called "scabs" who were willing to cross the picket line & drive the trucks. There are 335,000,000 people in the US & the majority can barely afford to put food on the table & pay for a roof over their head, so they can't risk losing their jobs. The only way a successful change could be made here is through legislation, and I don't think the majority of lawmakers here would ever be willing to change the laws & piss off their corporate donors. The quality of life here is very sad for most people.
Uk employees are quite well looked after. I worked for the NHS, I had a period of severe illness that required chemotherapy. I was given 6 months off on full pay, I was sent a large beautiful bunch of flowers from the management. I was given 28 days off paid holiday pay each year and If scheduled to work on a bank holiday it was double pay plus a day off of added to my leave. If for some reason you didn't get to use your annual leave you were paid for that leave you didn't take ( even if you were sick at the time) if you had booked annual leave days off and fell ill, you could phone into work and change those leave days to sick days.
Here in the UK maternity and paternity leave is now interchangeable between both parents so you can switch it up between the both of you. Why the US resists changing to a more human way of working still baffles me, I know its all about profit, but the government should step in and mandate it.
Unions would work in the US if everybody was in one. In the UK train company workers were offered 8% increase in salary over 2 years, the union said no and they went on strike. They have just got a pay increase of 15%
Ha! if my boss asked me to get a replacement, i tell him to go somewhere hot. That is why the boss get the big bucks, they are the one with the responsibility to get the job done.
As he said, here in Brighton, 20 days annual leave and eight bank holidays all paid Obviously, if you only work five hours a day, your days off will be paid at five hours a day My sons company for the first three days of sick full pay after that government, statutory sick pay kicks in which isn’t as much the company top it up. His grandad died a few years ago. They immediately sent him home and said he can take as much time as he needed. After the funeral, the next day, he went to work they sent him home again they said it was family time and he would be paid. After three days, he thought he should go back to work for something to do, but they still said if he needed time, he could go home at any time. It’s the attitude of company, which gives them loyal workers. A survey was done between holiday, pay and productivity with employees and it found that people with holiday pay and good workers rights had more productive employees which made the company more money. It seems like America just wants to grind the poor people into the ground, so their shares are worth more money and now your country wants child labour laws to disappear. Gun massacres people dying, because they cannot afford medical care slave labour. Terrible thing to say, but I don’t think America have the right to call themselves the greatest country in the world
I work for a big US company, but in the UK. I get 30days holiday (plus bankholidays). Sick leave is 5 days no doctor note and 6 months per year with a note... however if you go over the 6 months it is a discussion with your manager, normally people end still full pay but you maybe will work part time part sick for a while until you can fully get back on your feet.
In the 25 years I worked in the UK I never received anything other than statutory sick pay at the companies I worked at so quite often I would work when ill. I’m now living in Norway and receive full pay when I’m sick. I also get paid if I need to take a day to look after the children if my partner is sick.
My wife has just been put off work for two weeks because of a minor injury to a hand, her pay stays the same because she is on sick leave. I am so glad to live in a democracy with national health care rather than a republic (USA) that does not protect it workers.
Paternity Leave may be increasing to 6 weeks in the UK.. but quite frankly 2 weeks, even small amount, is better than none but longer is definately needed
I'm from the UK but I have worked in the US. This video raises some of the things I dislike about the US system but there are aspects I wish we could have in the UK. For example it is a nightmare firing anyone in the UK and people exploit this. Outside of the retail sector it is dangerous to fire anyone because they can easily raise false dismissal cases and cost a business a fortune fighting the case. I was working at a lab who wanted to fire a guy who kept having sick days despite him seeming to be quite healthy on those days (his social media showed this). Then he tried to claim religious persecution because he was a Muslim and claimed the lab didn't provide a suitable prayer space, this is despite having a room put aside for him to pray several times each day. After that he claimed racial discrimination etc etc. This man did nothing in the lab and yet continued to get paid during this entire dispute which lasted 9 months. UK law also means he could go on to another place and do the same same thing.
That would happen here as well as folks that claim the whole religious persecution or discrimination (here) do nothing that relates to their religion overtly but want to use as a way to a nice payday. That happens here as well, even in right to work states.
Great video man, I found you through your reaction to Lily Savage. I would like to make one thing slightly clearer with regards to Paternity pay, some companies now are offering "Enhanced Paternity pay" which means (again long as you have worked their a minimum time) you will essentially get 2 weeks full pay - as a lot of dads were taking 2 weeks holiday rather then 2 weeks crap pay.
Sick time does _not_ come out of holiday or vacation time in the US. It may come out of "paid time off", but if your company gives PTO, it's going to be the same total hours as an equivalent firm that gives vacation plus sick leave as separate buckets of hours. So they're not taking away your vacation. What they're doing is giving you the option to take sick days for fun instead of illness.
@@TheEclecticBeard If you get PTO, it's not vacation. It's meant to be both. When PTO was "invented", that was the deal. To add the vacation and sick days together to equal PTO
The only disadvantage of paid sick time off & generous holiday benefits scheme is that a very few people take advantage. A sick note is required from the doctor - some people are good actors in the doctor’s surgery, some people fall ill when the sun is shining, when their child is sick at home, when there’s a football (soccer) match, at the end of their holiday, some employers don’t spot the employee is missing, approaching retirement or want to p off their employer. These examples are very rare. Usually employers will have employee insurance for those off sick so both employer/employee get paid which softens the blow & the only nuisance is covering others’ absence. Some foreign firms based in the US do offer the same terms and conditions as their home country because they want Americans to work for them. The one good thing about working for a US company in the UK or EU is when they offer employees share (stock) options pre flotation, particularly in a chosen denominated currency. This can be extremely lucrative, although rare. Holiday bonuses are very generous too.
I live and work in the UK. I was born here. Every person in the UK pays tax and National Insurance out of their wages. the more you earn, the more you pay. National insurance is about 10% of your wages and the employers also have to same amount. This goes to fund the 'sick pay' system. Our Taxes goes towards our National Health Service and social security system. The problem with our system is that some people don't want to work but they still get social security payments even though they haven't paid into the tax and national insurance system. We also get 28 days as a minimum paid holiday, most people get more than this. Even part time workers get paid holidays. Bosses can't just fire you. They have to go through a whole process of verbal warnings, written warnings and a final warning before they can fire you.
I answer that partially at the end. It's not a question of how do we tolerate, it's more of Americans have been conditioned. We would have to vote out everyone within the congressional bodies at the state and federal levels. That or use the 2nd amendment to affect the change that's needed in this country. 5000 idiots out of 80k protestors broke/ were let into, the US Capitol and they called it an insurrection. No guns, minimal violence compared to what we've seen with protests and riots in this country. Over 1000 arrests and jail sentences. I can only imagine what armed gun owners attempting something like that would be called. Voting 1 person out doesn't change shit. Neither does voting out a presidential administration since the real power lies with Congress. A democrat without a majority or with split congressional body, or a Republican with the same can't get anything accomplished since it's the congressional body that passes laws and either works with or against whoever is elected as president. They'd need a super majority of their party in Congress to accomplish anything. That's just at the federal level. At the state level you'd have to have a democrat or republican voted in and a super majority within the congressional body of the legislature of that state as well. So to change things we'd have to vote out everyone at the federal and state levels to get the president, congress, governors and state legislative super majorities we need to change change things. You see that happening. You see anything like that having ever had that likelihood in the last 100 years here?
@@charleswhitney3235 An awful lot of our freedoms and rights are already being eroded. And people seem oblivious. And yes, sorry Alan, I commented a bit prematurely but did hear you saying that voting won't change a thing. Yep, same here. I have nothing left but contempt for the political party machine.
England here, I was off 6 months with Carpal Tunnel syndrome and then surgery. Fully paid for the entirety and also gained back the holidays that I had scheduled to take but was ill instead. It's one or the other so you get them back because being ill IS NOT A HOLIDAY
I'm on sick leave since the middle of January, my employer paid me my wage for 6 weeks then health insurance took over. Now I get paid 70% of my wage by my health insurance. It is a lot less money than my wage, but I still can cover all my necessities without worrying about losing my home and my job will still be there when I'm able to come back, because it is illegal to fire me while I am on sick leave. I'm German by the way, but this works the same all over Europe.
I spent almost 20yrs working in the USA, with the rest of my career either side of that in the UK. I GET this. There are plenty of people over here working paycheck to paycheck. We have "statutory sick pay" - its not enough to cover a living wage, but it's a statutory MINIMUM. Equivalent to full social benefits, what you'd get in benefits if you were unemployed, while YOUR EMPLOYMENT IS PROTECTED - you can't be fired while you're on the sick or on maternity leave or on short term disability. The rules for a doctor's note are set by law. Up to three days you "self-certify" - now you DO have to give info about why you were sick, whether you consider the illness is likely to recur etc, but you fill in a form and present it to your employer and you're covered. Longer than 3 days you go to your doctor and they "sign you off" until - in the doctor's medical opinion, nothing to do with your HR or payroill dept - you are fit to return to work. You start in the UK with a legal right (as a full-time guy) to 4 weeks vacation a year plus public holidays. If you're not full-time it's pro-rated based on your percentage of full-time. Paid sick days are legally mandated and TO TAKE THEM OUT OF YOUR VACATION IS ILLEGAL. It counts as "wage theft" and the company is criminally liable for it, not civilly liable requiring you to lawyer up and sue them. A lot of this isn't absolute. Suppose you are sick with a long-term condition and it is going to impact your ability to do your job in the future. If they can make that case the company CAN let you go - but it can never count as "fired for cause" and you get full unemployment immediately, along with a good case for getting additional disability pay. But it works. Most folks get a fair shake.
Just want to correct the wording used slightly, there are no "liberals" in America. You have center right (Democrats) and far right (Republicans) there is no liberal option and the fact either can be referred to as liberal is laughable. The closest you have to a liberal is Bernie Sanders and he is considered too radical even for his own party to vote for him. I think this is the major issue for America is you only have 2 electable parties and both are right leaning just varying degrees. Each time one gets more extreme it allows the other to move even further to the right and still seem the more liberal choice. It's scary but I have no idea how you would ever resolve it.
@@angelavara4097 Who elected you the grammar inspector? Only joking. Seriously. Just being daft. The spell checker is programmed to American English. Aluminium and there is a u in candour and valour. PS. I was prompted to correct those three "spoilings".
Right on. I am a moderate left (sometimes more leftdeoending on issue)in my country but look at the US in disbelief. Their right has gone so far out in the weeds that they have lost any humanity.
Australia 38 hrs normal hours, 4 weeks paid annual leave, 2 weeks paid sick leave, 20 weeks paid parental leave increasing to 26 weeks over next 4 years.working at a company for 10 years you get 8.66 weeks long service minimum wage is $21.8 per hour, about 10-16 days public holiday and more.
I work for an American multi-national in the UK. I am British and all the workers based in the UK, regardless of their nationality (including the Americans here), We all get sick pay (up to 6 months on full pay then ite decreases to 50% - not sure how long that goes on for), 25 days a year paid leave. We work 4 days a week plus Friday up to noon - 37 hours per week. We have the NHS for free at point of use health care (We all pay national insurance but it's a tiny amount) - after 5 days off sick a free doctors note is required. Now I'm 60 I even have free prescriptions.
Here in the UK employers usually like you to put most of your holidays in in advance so they can work around it. The company I work for pays me anyway if I'm off sick......after 1week I need a fit note from a doctor....if I loose a parent I get 2 weeks paid leave...grandparent 1 week...other relatives 3 days. Plus 28 days paid leave and bank holidays. But my employer is extremely flexible and understanding......I feel for our cousins over the pond. xx
In the mid 80s to the mid 90s I worked for our county council here in the UK as a waste haulage driver, we would be allowed 6 months sick pay on full pay including average bonus and a further 6 months on half pay. As they moved me from one depot to another further away I got three quarters of a hour overtime a day plus fuel allowance, we had 28 days holiday not including bank Holidays, however I loved the job and often worked 7 days a week ( we never bothered about driving hours regulations ) and of course we could be sunbathing on a Spanish beach still on full pay plus average bonus and my average bonus was around a hundred quid a week
I will point out here, it's also different between Alba (scotland here) and England, in Alba we actually have even more benefits and rights than they do in england, including NHS benefits (scottish nhs and england nhs are separate), I get 7 weeks holiday - holidays include bank/public holidays, and I get an additional week due to being at my job for 5+ years, I think get another bump at 15+ years at my job. Bereavement by "reasonable" it's actually roughly 3 days - it depends on whether it's immediate family, friend, technically a pet can also count but that one is more depending on your employer, will determine what reasonable is, if immediately family then yeah most time off at 3 days and for when funeral is scheduled. Paternity leave is 2 weeks and for additional time will come out of holidays or authorised unpaid if you don't have holidays left or employer agrees to authorised unpaid leave. As for firearms, I think the usa should adopt New Zealands laws and regulations regarding firearms - NZ actually has higher per-capita gun ownership than the usa, not more guns, but more people that have a gun (per capita) - as that would make everybody happy that isn't insane.
(UK) At 56 I got very ill and was off work for 2 months. I was back for a week and my mother died, so another couple of weeks off. I then returned to work and was made redundant. I was paid full pay for the 2 months and 2 weeks, full pay for unused holiday (25 days) that I hadn't taken and 4 years pay for redundancy (partly so as not to sue for moving my job). I could also cash in my pension and get 50% salary for the rest of my life in actual pension. I retired at 57 :P All my healthcare is free of course due to the NHS - that is worth £12,000 a year ($15K).
We had a great setup. I could work at home as I wished. Also, I had no fixed hours. I could work as few hours as I wanted if the work got done. That helped the company because I tended to work longer hours because I could choose when I worked. It suited both myself and work. I was an IT security manager.
In Britain we do tip food servers but it very little. If a bill comes to £23 we might round it up to £25 and the staff would not expect much more, Bar staff are rarely tipped although they might be told to 'Take one for yourself; ie have a drink. But this is not common,
How can a union negotiate a worse deal for workers? Don't the members get to vote on the deal before it is agreed to like they do everywhere else? Every year our union negotiates our annual pay increase and then we all have to vote to accept it or not, worst things ever got was 6 rounds of negotiation but we got a much better deal than we were originally offered.
During some twenty odd years I worked in the NZ health service I held roles as diverse as union delegate and managerial appointments. I found no conflict when I moved "upstairs" as union / management negotiations are required by legislation to be "in good faith" and combative approaches cab lead to being taken before the appropriate court where straight negotiation is monitored. In management, over pay claims, we would essentially open the books, making clear what money was ava
Continued : money available and where it was committed in the year's budget. If funding was short, the unions would see this and work to a reasonable settlement that could be afforded so as to keep business viable and paying out what could be managed at that time. Working conditions are good here, with annual leave, sick leave and parental leave all legislated for and not left over to employers. I understand that one US president said that the business of America is Business, so operating a wage slave system is the best way of maintaining a strong bottom line but at the cost to the people who actually meet that bottom line is high.
Thanks for your measured thoughts about gun ownership. As a Brit it's strange looking in but it's good to hear a response that keeps within the law bit tries to keep citizens safer.
I attended a job interview once and was congratulated upon being appointed to the role. The first question asked was, " Have you made any holiday arrangements for this year"? This wasn't to tell me hard luck. It was so that HR could schedule my holidays into the company diary. That's in the UK.
In the US, they will ask that exact same question, and if you have any such plans, well you better either abandon those plans or abandon that job.
Yes, this is a pretty standard question for new staff and one I've been asked in every job I've taken over the last 40+ years here in the UK. In one case, I was due to start a two week holiday on the day I was expecting to commence employment. The employer moved the start date forward a couple of days so I could finish the induction paperwork before I went away (on full pay, of course).
On so many levels the US cannot be considered a first world developed nation on par with the rest of the developed civilised world , its an insult.
Damn right!
Yes thank you for showing I'm not alone in my same opinion
When I was a kid, we all wanted to be American, probably because of the TV shows we watched. Everything seemed so much better in the US. The more I learn about the US law, culture and attitudes, the more I appreciate being a UK citizen.
Enjoy it while you still can mate. The Tories are gonna make us all dirt poor Americans. No Health care; no pension, no holiday pay, no future.
Czech here, same!
Everything problaly is better in the US, IF you're rich!
All those great medical drama series never mention the nightmare of their healthcare system.
@@lalaemm5985 The US TV shows always showed high school as some big great fun experience with jocks and nerds and pretty girls and football practice and prom... They seldom showed the metal detectors at the entrances, armed secuyrity guards, or kids doing active shooter drills
"When people with a lot of money don't want things to change".
Vast majority of human history explained right there in that sentence.
um, nope. Not at all. It more along the line of those who are lazy try to come up with justifications to take another's property.
and just how much property do you own,,, 64% of mums cellar?
@@keithskelhorne3993 I'd say they're *technically* (and possibly accidentally) correct if you consider that the wages you're entitled to for your labor rightfully belong to you, and lazy, miserly employers are the ones who will bend over backwards to do everything they can to avoid giving you what you're owed.
@@keithskelhorne3993 irrelevant babble. IF an erudite thought formed in your brain you would die.
@@protonneutron9046do you actually believe that?
I lived and worked in the US for six years. As a Brit, it makes me so happy to be British because this resonates so much and don't get me started on taxes and the US Healthcare System. Got taxed to death over there. We Brits don't know how lucky we are.
We do, but we still like to moan about it
Land of the free, home of the brave. The only country that doesn't give affordable health care and holidays - basic human rights 😢
Neither are human rights because both require someone do something often without remuneration. Health care is affordable, if we didn't have to spend several hundred dollars a month on insurance that refuses to pay out.
@@hitandruncommentor So healthcare isn't affordable then. Even without you're extortionate health insurance your hospitals and doctors charge absolutely ridiculous fees for everything and don't get me started on the prices of your drugs and prescriptions which are also ridiculous and extortionate and you spend more on healthcare than any other country in the world. In all other countries healthcare is a human right, only in America it isn't. America is one of the least free countries in the world, American people are just brainwashed and indoctrinated to think otherwise. You couldn't pay me to live in the shithole that is the USA
Exactly
@@hitandruncommentor if you believe having holidays is not a right, you are the problem Americans have. As for the healthcare, I was on an American group with a colleague who has been diagnosed COPD and has to buy an inhaler which costs 700+$. In the UK it costs 30£ (but it comes for free on prescription). Tell me again how affordable 🤨
Human rights 🤣
I was on holiday in the US once for 2 weeks and got speaking to an American couple doing the same (it was the Grand Canyon so they were still on holiday). They’d saved up holiday for like 2 years for one blow out 2 week trip away. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I had another 3 and a half weeks of holiday I HAD to take that year.
We genuinely get emails from managers panicking that we haven’t taken enough holiday that year when the end of the period is coming up.
I'm in the UK and now retired but when I worked, I had cancer in 2016 so I was off work for 10 months. I had full pay for the first six months and half pay for the rest. When I went back, I was phased back into work and still had six weeks holidays to use up.
Glad you were in the UK when you got ill Chris and I hope you're doing well now. It's traumatic enough having something like that to go through, but the stress must be horrific in the US system.
You must be a government worker or were.
@@jasonhartley1305 No, I worked for a housing association.
@@chrisy8989 which is a branch of the council , and runs as a side by side body . Semi independent but part of the council in all but name..the money the so called charity which they all are is paid for by tax payers money . I know because I've worked with one . Social housing companies are government funded .ergo public sector.
@@jasonhartley1305 BT had the same rules, certainly for manager level or higher. Unsure if it applied to all level of employees.
Here’s me in the UK thinking there must be more to life, when I get 29 days plus bank holidays. When my mum died, I had over 3 weeks off paid. I maybe need to be more grateful for my work situation.
I just recently learned that in my country (Sweden) we can get our holidays back if we happen to get ill during our payed leave... as in, you should call in to work even though you're on vacation to let them know you've gotten sick and they will return the vacation days and put you on sick days instead. And then you can have that vacation for later. We get more pay for vacation than sick days but who wants to spend their holiday being sick? Having to take vacation days when you're sick seems insane in comparison...
In the US, this can be done if you have a good relationship with your boss and they trust you.
This is the same in the UK. Technically it's "illegal" to use Holidays to cover sick days.
Same goes in Belgium. The company will return your planned vacation days and just jot them down as sick days.
The only thing needed is a note of a doctor. And yes, they get paid.
Same in my job. Uk railway.
Same in UK
I work in the UK, and when my father died a couple of years ago my employer gave me plenty of time off, and I was fully paid during that period.
What my manager said was "take as much time as you need" - so I was able drop everything & visit my Dad in hospital, then later I took a week or so off to help my Mum make arrangements for the funeral, and spent a couple of days on the phone chasing down insurance policies, and claiming pension payments etc. because my employer was being reasonable, I behaved the same way - working when I could manage it without breaking into tears. I am very glad I don't live in the US.
Me too, my family would be on the streets if we lived there.
Very similar with me , I was told come back when you're ready , but after three weeks I was glad to go back to take my mind of things ,, but that was my choice , I suppose it's not so bad here in G.B.
Same here. When my Mum passed away I was entitled to 11 days paid special leave, outside of my annual entitlement.
I'm in the UK, in 2018 i started a new job, 3 days later my sister unexpectedly passed away. My manager told me the same thing. I took 2 weeks off, was paid 5 days worth of wages then went back to work after 2 weeks so i could keep my mind off things.
In that situation, most of your work colleagues would understand your situation & cover for you in m your absence.
When I was sick I was expected to stay away from work. The reason given was that, if I went into work with a viral infection I would spread it to my colleagues. This makes sense to me as I worked in a small team of 20. I used to hate people who attender work sniffling and coughing all over the place. I am from Scotland.
Quite, same where I work long before COVID and homeworking became the default, it would be do not come in even if you only have a cold and WFH if you can instead. There was nothing worse when I was an office worker than that one person who would come in to 'be a martyr' infecting everyone else on the team.
I used to work in a hotel that required us to have a fitness to work certificate before we were allowed back to work so it was off to the doctor to prove we were sick and back to the doctor to prove we were not sick if you were found to be sick and in work you risked being written up for it
Most rights British workers enjoy were won decades ago by people like me who joined trade unions and fought for them. Sadly, today too many (particularly the young) harbour the hideous idea that these rights were somehow bestowed by a motherly EU or freely gifted by benificent governments, and do not join trade unions to protect themselves or the rights their fathers and grandfathers won for them. They'll regret it.
i'm having the same trouble getting across to these young whippersnappers at work
Oh yes.
I really can't believe that anybody seriously pretends that workers right come from the EU; workers were fighting for those in a lot of countries long before the EU.
Sorry, but that sounds suspiciously like a straw argument à la "oh those terrible pro-EU people are trying to pretend ....!!!"
Sure, and also good British fishers need to wear hair-nets, that was a cute one, too.
I've only ever heard EU mentioned in relation to it due to other EU countries also having similar laws in place that protect the worker, not because they came FROM the EU.
Before I retired, my wife passed away in 2016, she became suddenly blind, she was rushed to hospital, I was told by my employer to take as much time as I needed, when it became obvious that her Illness was very serious my boss told me that I was on full pay for as long as needed. She passed away eight weeks later. My boss and half the depot came to her funeral service. Again I was told to take as much time as I needed. I did return to work ASAP as being home alone was driving me nuts but my employer reiterated again that I didn't have to go back so soon.
I was sick one time but I decided to "man up" and go to work because it was "nothing". I was the only male at the time. At noun, my boss (female) saw me almost dying on my desk (not literally) and proceeded to scold me for 20 minutes for even coming to work and drove to the nearest hospital, despite my protests, and ask a doctor to examine me.
After the doctor was finished, I was driven home with clear instructions to not show my face at work until I feel better after the doctor gave me 7 sick days.
Here in Australia (I am now going to blow your mind!), we get paid 17.5% extra wages when we go on vacation. It's called 'leave loading' and, hey, you need extra money to go on holiday, right?
We also have the National Employment Standards (NES) that are 11 minimum STATUTORY employment entitlements that have to be provided to all employees (casual employees only get 6 entitlements) that cannot be contracted out by either employee or employer (ie: cannot remove them)
This means things like maximum 38hrs per week (overtime is after that at 150% and 200%, and cannot be mandated), paid public holidays, minimum personal days (no longer called sick days), termination notice periods, redundancy payments, long service leave, family/DV leave, 4 weeks annual leave per year, flexible working arrangements, mandatory offers and requests to convert from casual to permanent employmentmust after 6 months. Etc Etc
Superannuation is a separate Statutory mandated scheme (10.5% of wage/salary to be paid by employer AFTER wages paid).
Workers Compensation is mandated for ANY injuries at work whether it was your fault or not (unless its grossly negligent or reckless).
Occupational Health and Safety laws are absolute and Risks must be mitigated with not doing so being a CRIMINAL offence (for directors, managers, and company) and the breach does NOt require injury just the unreasonable potential for injury.
This is for ALL employees and employers.
But you still have medi care. Lol.
That is just a killer
In Germany some jobs (mostly heavy unionized working area) got a so called 13th (and sometimes 14th) Salary - often close to 75% of a full month salary. 13th is at December ("Weihnachtsgeld" - Christmas Salary), 14th is in summer ("Urlaubsgeld" - Vacation salary).
Leave loading, but that is gradually moved to a end of year bonus.
We have something similar in Sweden, but the formula is more complex 0.43% of ordinary monthly salary extra per vacation day.
For context on sick pay in the UK, you have "statutory sick pay" which is the little bit that he mentioned there (paid by the government), but most office jobs and above also have some allocated days of sick pay (at my job you are eligible for like 6 weeks of full pay sick pay after working here for 6 months). You have to show them you are actually sick, but that's not too hard. HR aren't looking to put you out and get themselves sued
To add, most staff employed on a salary basis (fixed hours for fixed pay, e.g. 37 hours per week, £30,000 per year pay) have sick pay as one of their benefits, along with things like medical insurance, company cars, gym memberships, holidays above the legal minimum. However Casual staff (on a contract with 0 guaranteed hours, a lot of restaurant staff, bar staff etc) do not get these benefits and get the legal minimum, and Statutory sick pay, and get nothing until the 4th day of illness (does not need to be 4 work days). These are the people normally living pay check to pay check and can not afford those first 3 days without pay so in turn are more likely to turn up sick even in the UK
I'm eligible for up to a year on full pay if sick then a review and 6months of 2/3 pay. 32 days vacation/holidays not including bank holidays. Full pension where my employer has to double my contribution. I've just had compassionate leave for a month on full pay to help care for my partner who is having Chemotherapy for Acute Myeloid leukemia ( this does not come out of either my holidays or sick leave )
@@grumpyratt2163 I hope he is getting better. That's a horrible card to be dealt. I to had to take time off as my husband was having radiology of a one month period. On the odd day when he was good between treatments i did go in but when it came to my time sheets my boss said just put down what looks reasonable and she signed it all off and I didnt lose any money at all, full pay throughout.
@@9Mtikcus Most people in the UK don't earn 30k a year though. 43% of Brits pay no income tax because their earnings are below the tax allowance which is almost 1/3 of 30,000.
@Writeous0ne you will notice the e.g. as example of how a salary is structured. Yes lots are paid less, and for a lot SSP is all they get was my point. That it is not everyone with great sickness benefits
Good video :)
As a UK citizen I find it slightly ironic that the USA fought a war of independence to escape “tyrannical” British rule… to end up with less rights in “the land of the free”… something is basically wrong for the average American citizen :(
Because we let money get into politics… and now we have to fix it
It's really sad that new parents in America are almost proud of how little time they spend with the new baby. I've heard stories of the manager saying stuff like I had my baby on Monday. I took one day off, and I'm back to work like it's something to be proud of. No wonder, why kids can grow up and never see their parents, it's almost like the royal family. King Charles III said that before he was closer to his nanny, then he was his own mother. Which is really sad. You disappear from your child's life. They don't even notice.
I could not imagine bringing my children up to live under US sickness, health and holiday conditions for the rest of their work life.
I think lot's of Americans are shocked when they visit and find out what it's like to work here in Canada. The things we get time off for are like most of the normal Countries like sick and vacation pay, bereavement leave which depending on the company can include pet's. We have laws protecting the employee not the employer.
Thanks Alan! It is amazing, that you still find the energy and joy, to do these videos educating the US audience. I think, that the Tube has become the most important "education"/learning method/platform for so many clueless "Americans", that they should have like "mandatory" lessons, like yours, to be able to move on to "normal" videos!! Best Regards from Finland!
Here is a strange one for you. My dad worked for the NHS. (6 months sick pay) He suddenly became ill and was fitted with a Stoma in the same hospital place he worked in. He was in intensive care for over a year in lockdown and almost died several times due to bad care. To this day he is still awaiting surgery from a specialist in Manchester. They paid his full pension and wages to the end of his working life as if he was to be still working at the place. He can't have the surgery at the place he worked at because they are not capable. They expected him to die. We have a running joke, I owed him a tenner and he wouldn't leave without getting it. Tight, Scottish, and pig headed.
UK based - I can take 5 days off ill on full pay without having to provide any kind of confirmation. After that I could get up to 6 months full pay per year before moving onto SSP. If I had to leave work completely due to illness or was diagnosed with a critical illness I would get 4x my annual salary. For holidays I get 30 a year plus the 8 bank holidays on full pay.
The "reasonable amount of time" for a bereavement is an interesting example for how British law works. It's all about precedent. At some point in time somebody will have been fired for taking too much time off after a death and taken the employer to a tribunal and won. Thus setting a legal precedent that X amount of weeks off does fall within the bound of "reasonable". That will then have the standard that most companies will know they have to allow as a minimum.
UA-cam wouldn't let me post the whole story if you want all of it ask me.
Something missed by both about maternity leave. Most pregnant women won't even get hired if they know you are pregnant or they make it so you quit or find any reason to fire you. Happened to me. I'm 8 months pregnant and out of a job and struggling so hard because of it. Even though I put in for my maternity leave I didn't even get to make it to that maternity leave. They denied me a place to sit despite filling out an ADA Form, despite my doctor writing to them that it was medically necessary. Despite me practically begging as I cried every night once my 8-9 hour shift was over with only my "30 minute" lunch to sit. Which btw I had to walk across the entire warehouse (it was a very popular wholesale club. I worked at the bakery at the back.) up a large flight of stairs just to clock out for lunch. Go back down a flight of stairs just so i could use the restroom, wait in a very long line just to get something "quick" to eat. Finally go back up those same flight of stairs, sit down for maybe 7-10 minutes. Eat, clock back in from lunch then go back down those same flight of stairs and across the warehouse to the back where my department was. In order to take my "15 minute" break i would have to do all that but by the time i got to the top of the stairs i would only have 2 minutes to sit before i had to go back so it was pointless and never ended up taking my breaks. Which is why I was begging to be able to use a foldout stool that I BOUGHT with my own money.
I literally left work everyday in tears. My night shift coworkers would always help me to my car to make sure I got to it safely as they knew by the end of the day I could barely walk. They were very worried I would fall especially with all the black ice on the parking lot and very poor lighting if any where they made us park. I literally cried in my car for 5 minutes straight every night i had to work before getting back out of my car once i got home because the pain was so great and I didn't want my husband to worry about me or the baby or for him to see me in that state. (I grew up in the ghetto and you aren't supposed to show weakness like that. You're supposed to just suck it up i guess and deal with it.) He was already stressed about his job and I just didn't want to add to it. By the time i got to my bed it was already anywhere from 9:30pm - 10:30pm at night depending on when I was able to leave work (You don't get to leave work til the work is done). Once I was in bed. I was in so much pain I literally could not get back out of it for any reason. Not to eat, bathe or use the restroom. Whatever I still had on is what i'm sleeping in as I could barely move to even take it off, if I didn't take it off before getting into bed. My husband would bring me water and dinner and would take away once I was done. Sometimes I'd fall asleep in the middle of eating. The day I got that answer from my manager though I finally confessed everything to him. ("If you want. You can go into the back hall and call Sedgewick right now and see if they can do anything and maybe they will approve it by the time you give birth. HAHAHAHAHAHA" was the answer i got from manager btw) He told me I HAD to quit. There was no way I could continue the way its been going. Especially for mine and the baby's health. He (the baby) wasn't moving when I was so stressed and in pain while working. He'd only move around a lot when I had my days off. So I put my two weeks in and that manager never really showed her face during my last two weeks there. Other things happened too. I got a lot of snide remarks from the morning staff. They were/are absolutely awful people. Other than a couple of people in the morning and my night shift co workers the majority of them were always insulting me in a way that others wouldn't pick up but i knew what they meant or would gaslight me, do things on purpose to make my job harder, etc etc. Even when i returned to the store as a "club member" after the fact just shopping for some essentials (like buying toilet paper in bulk) one of them flagged me down just to insult me and then ran off when my husband caught up to me. When I told my hubby what happened he said she was lucky he was out of ear shot. He said he would have been petty and made a scene to try and get her fired. Anyway health wise I've been doing incredibly better. Financially we are now struggling because no one is going to hire a pregnant woman so late in pregnancy now. My hubby lost his job illegally btw and never got his last paycheck. But that's a different story.
You have been abused and you both should sue
My last job was with the UK branch of a US company. We have a flexible benefits system that allowed us to take 28 to 35 days of paid holiday each year, 8 of which would be designated bank holidays . The US parent company offers 11 designated holidays and 13 days of flexible vacation, increasing to 18 after 3 years.
After my mother died there were several delays and I waas given 3 weeks off until after her funeral.
We got up to 6 months of full pay. I used 2 weeks once when I had my tonsils removed (had to isolate afterwards).
Yet the company didn't go bust!!
It is a poor understanding of profit and loss, when companies look at sick pay as a cost, rather than a benefit to them in the long run. 2 days off for 1 person who has the flu, compared to real drop in productivity of 4 or 5 people catching the flu off that 1 person, and then 4 more catch it, and eventually you have a 25% of your workforce sick for 4 to 5 days, over a 3 month period.
Just as a comparison I work from home full-time in the UK. This year I have 28 days of annual leave, 8 public bank holidays plus 1 additional for the King's coronation and 5 annual leave days carried-over from last year because I didn't use them all, so 42 days off this year on full pay. Why would I EVER work in the USA??
Hi from the UK 👋 🇬🇧 my wife was off work for a year and a half with cancer she was paid 100 % for the first year then 75 % for six months when she went back to the same job that they had to keep open for her plus all her cancer treatment is paid for by our tax system and she will have to take medication for the rest of her life which is free
My goddaughter works HR for an American company and they asked her what they would need to do to open up in the UK. She told them "change your entire business model".
Are we supposed to be sorry about that?
@@clareshaughnessy2745 why would y7ou assume you should be sorry that American working practices are unacceptable in most places?
@@charlestaylor3027 it was a genuine question (with a little bit of sneer in there just in case). I just wondered whether you were implying something, like ‘you’ll never get investment from US companies unless you lessen those regulations!’ Or maybe ‘can you believe the attitude of those bloomin’ US companies?’. I wasn’t sure
@@clareshaughnessy2745 It was just a factual statement - lots of companies do create subsidiaries in the UK but there HR has a steep learning curve.
@@charlestaylor3027 oh, ok. Fair enough
By the time I finished my last job I had accrued 67 unused paid sick days. When my father was diagnosed with cancer he used 9 months of accrued paid sick leave - treatment without needed to worry about wage coming in.
A nice feature about UK sick/holiday times is that they are completely separate. I’ve fallen ill on holiday before and told my boss “Oh hey, I was sick for two days last week, I need you to reimburse those two holiday days and mark them as sick days instead”, so I got two days holiday allowance back.
In Australia we get an average 4 weeks paid annual leave. Lets say you get sick for a week during your four weeks off (for the sake of the exercise, you need not usually take off all four weeks at a time). You can notify your employer, present a medical certificate and have that weeks annual leave replaced with sick leave pay and you retain that weeks annual leave, which you get to use later.
having worked in a few countries across Europe I can say that the US sounds very medieval in workers rights. For most Eu countries, a doctor's visit is free. Also, in general you may get 1 - 3 days of unpaid sick leave each time you get sick (don't stay home for every snotty nose you have effectively) but if you do stay sick for long term you generally get 60 - 80% of your average salary as paid sick leave (anything over 2 - 4 weeks is generally government paid) and for long term illness you should have regular (think every 2 - 4 weeks depending on the illness) doctor's checks to make sure you're not faking it. The companies can generally ask you to visit an independent doctor after some time to ensure there's a 2nd set of eyes looking out for not just you but also for the company
A very similar story to others who have already posted.
I got a call late at night telling me my Mother was in hospital and that she wouldnt be coming out.
Phoned my manager at work ( when they were in ) and she asked me to keep her updated.
A few hours later my mum slipped her mortal coil ,, when I phoned my manager she told me to stay away from work for at least a week and if I needed more time it wasnt an issue.
The company paid me for my time off which was a week & it didnt come out of my holiday pay.
I told them I would like to make an emergency holiday request for the Funeral ,, Nope ,, they made me take the day and following day off full pay.
In the UK past 20h/w is considered full time and part timers have the same benefits regardless.
Approval is still usually required but it is very unlikely to be rejected because if you can proove they didn't allow you to take your government mandated days off they will be in trouble.
Its mostly just a negociation of when is less busy.
unions and local organizing have historically been among the most effective ways to fix problems like these. if people made the problem people can fix the problem. unions not acting effectively in your area its up to you and your neighbors to fix them. its annoying but nothing gets better if everyone just sits on their hands.
The bottom line failure in various business practices is forgetting one simple fact. Without people, you have no business. Without good people, you only have a bad business. If you are expecting these employees to have any regard AT ALL for your company and you are hoping to leave it in their "careful" hands day to day.... I would suggest that you look after those people, especially the good ones.
I think as soon as a few large employers in the states start offering proper work benefits and conditions, as soon as there is competition which proves, happy, easy go, comfortable workers work twice as hard and care about the business twice as much, it may be a landslide change.
I have my fingers crossed for you!
I once worked for a company in the UK ,where were given 4 weeks holiday a year ,which was great ,what wasn't great ,because the company decided to shut down for 2 weeks over Christmas ,you had to save 2 weeks of your holiday,so you got paid ,
Meaning your stuck at home because the weather is terrible,,Then when the time you actually wanted time off ,the rule was only one person per week off
Which meant if you didn't get to the boss first to book the time ,you had very dodgy weeks because the summer months had already gone
My last company gave me 100% sick pay for six months per year, dropping down to 80% after that. I was very very unwell, to the point I parted ways with them and presently am in no fit state to work.
It may sound naive, but I can't quite get my head round why US workers have allowed such an extreme situation to develop - I'd have thought people would be up in arms! Americans are always banging on about their "rights", but seemingly not regarding this fundamental issue. If your government or unions won't protect the workers, one would think they'd be forming new unions that actually represent their members. It's this defeatist docility that mystifies and infuriates me.
If we're forced to work (as we are, to pay for our basic needs), and the employer alone entirely stipulates the conditions under which we work, then it really is slavery.
One of the things he didn't mention - if you don't take all your holiday days, a lot of companies will either pay you for the holiday days, or they will let you carry all or some of them over to the next year. Or if you leave a job and have worked 50% of the year, but only taken 25% of the holiday for that year (for eg), then you get paid for the holiday days you haven't taken - they're considered your holiday days, so you get paid.
I think most UK companies are really good when it comes to compassionate leave. My Mum was very ill and in hospital towards the end of her life. My Dad was given time off work to spend time in the hospital with her (a few weeks at least) and then after she died, he got several more weeks to sort the funeral/grieve etc. All fully paid I believe.
I don't know anyone who's ever been denied as much time as they need when someone has died. People don't go and take the mick by asking for months off, it's usually anywhere between a few days (if it was something like a grandparent) to a few weeks (sibling/parent).
Someone I know lost a grandparent and found at at the end of the working day. They informed their manager they'd be taking at least the next day off (notice I say informed, not asked) and that they'd call people then and send emails to cancel appointments for the following day. The manager told them to log off everything now and that they'd do it instead and for this person to just go be with their family and let them know the following day how much time they thought they'd need. My friend ended up taking 2 or 3 days off then plus one a few weeks later for the funeral. None of it was a problem.
Meanwhile in the US, someone in a facebook group I'm in posted about how their Dad had died and they weren't even allowed to leave work early that day after finding out. They were also denied the time off to go to the funeral and got told if they went anyway, they'd lost their job. It's insane.
Evan did some really eye opening comparisons on Us/UK grocery shopping. Suffice to say you pay in some cases 4 times as much as we do. Honestly Alan, sometimes, a lot of the time, I think you're being scammed by everybody who's supposed to have your best interests at heart.
BTW when are you emigrating 😊
Actually, Jane, for a lot of things prices are lower than in the UK. Most fruit and veg are home grown, whereas we have to import a lot and since Brexit it's not worth it for a lot of suppliers to jump through the hoops. So we get shortages = higher prices, in addition to transport costs.
@@patriciamcl54 were actually still cheaper on most groceries than the US, and where exactly do you live? Because I have not run out of anything at any time since Brexit.
Your sanity, common sense, and intelligence in this just makes my day.
I can assure you that even though here in the UK we get 4 weeks of bookable holiday we can't just announce what days we want as that could leave the company with no workforce at times of the year like school holidays so we basically put in a request for approval.
Working in the UK, I was allowed to take a month off when i got married. Awesome :) And that was working for an American company in the UK.
For a long time here in the UK we had Personnel Departments but in the past 25 years this has become known as Human Resources. I have often wondered if this sets a mind set that you are no longer a person but have become a resource just like a lump of metal.
I have in the past worked for two US Companies, AT&T and a company called Parker Hannifin, with both of them I received much better benefits than people doing the same job in the US. In fact with the second of those companies we had the option to carry forward one of our weeks holiday to the next year, so if for example I wanted to go on a long haul holiday I could take only three weeks one year but five weeks the next. We also had the option to sell our holidays back to the company at double time. When working at AT&T hidden away in the employee manual there was the option to be given a discount card if you were to go on holiday to Disney that entitled you to a 25% discount on park entry because AT&T sponsored an exhibit in Epcot.
As I understand it one of the reasons unions in the US are so weak is because they were infiltrated by organised crime who would allow themselves to be bought off by the employers.
Yes, I remember when it was personnel then became HR now a lot of large firms are doing away with it all together the company I worked for does not have either anymore nor the company my wife worked for for 30yrs✌️
@@martindunstan8043 Yep sub-contracting out to agencies, it kind of tells you just how highly they value their employees when they are willing to let people with no knowledge of their staff manage their employment needs.
Perth Australia here... I was pregnant and I remember you have to just let them know and I have to be off work by 34 weeks but you can work up to 36 weeks with doctors note. 18 weeks of maternity leave thru Centrelink. After 18 weeks you can use your Annual leave or long service leave or just unpaid up to 2 years. When you return your job is still there for you.
Looking after your employees is simply good business practice. Workers who are physically and mentally well and that have been in their perspective roles for a long time obviously are better at their job and therefore more productive, better with quality, customer service, more responsible, caring...etc. Since the USA is so focused on profit why can't they see the long term benefits of long term employees? 🤷♂️
7:58. Union organizers have been the target of corporate media since they started to gain some small concessions from exploitative big business. The propaganda has been pervasive, and persuasive. Here in the UK the same tactics have been used for decades, encouraging workers to vote against their best interests and defend their abusers. It costs the corporations much less to corrupt the unions, than to give decent terms and conditions to workers. If you don't organize to demand a reasonable return for your labor, companies will continue to strip away your rights, until you will be nothing more than bonded slaves.
Paid sick leave should be a statutory thing in my opinion with some safeguards in place for the company of course. But I also think an employer that is pragmatic about it is more likely to foster a greater level of trust with their staff. My current company were amazing during my struggles with mental health (my previous company gaslit me beyond belief where I almost ended it all) and even granted me compassionate leave with pay. 4 years later I am still with this company, healthy, happy and utterly in love with the people I work for. They stood by me and obviously had faith that I would pull through. Most of all I think this was down to having honest dialogue about my problems. I never had to lie to them, because they never judge me or frowned upon any medical issue. They trusted the relationship.
I have a new American colleague, she had a migraine and told her to go to rest...come back when felt better be it the next day or next week. We even checked she'd registered with a GP as new to the UK.
I remember watching a clip from a news organisation that questioned some restaurant owners, store managers/ owners during the last presidential election campaign, when the pledge to raise the minimum wage to livable minimum wage, the answer they all gave was they would slash staff if the minimum wage was increased more than $1.00 .
The thing is that all those worker's rights in Europe were not handed over on a silver platter to the workers. They had to fight for it and sometimes paid the price in blood. The unions in Germany are still very strong and fight for higher wages or other benefits. As May 1st is approaching, I'd like to remind the Amercans that you "invented" this day. So thank you for that and perhaps it is time to fight for your rights again.
Greeting from Germany
In Australia, entitlements are set out in the National Employment Standards. Full time employees get 28 holidays a year, plus Federal and State Publjc Holidays. Your leave starts accruing as soon as you start the job. There is also sick leave, parental leave and special leave.
Minimum wage workers are treated appallingly in the US, not just the poor pay and lack of benefits but some customers also seem to think they can abuse them because they are perceived as losers in a society obsessed with success and celebrity.
In Germany, there often (not always) are caps on allowed overtime, so there's a small amount of hours you can use for emergencies or just that extra day.
This goes together with companies wanting you to take your vacation days - **instead of a payout* : They won't have to pay them out while, depending on your tax bracket, it's not really worth it anyway.
Laws also are in place in order to keep you from just stacking our comparatively generous vacation days in order to make a payout actually worth it or be gone for months.
At least up until covid, we could generally take over a few days to the next year, provided they were taken in the 1st quarter.
Thus a lot of parents would do just that and take vacation right at the beginning of the year, since their kids would be on school break until around Jan 6th -without using up new vacation days.
😂
I am from England, 2007 I had an Operation on my right shoulder, 7 months off sick whilst having physio, 6 months on sick pay, one month on ESA, then back to work on light duties for a couple of months.
Also my younget son's girlfriend had a baby, she was feeling the stress of breaking up with my son, she decided to hand in her resignation to he employer MacDonalds, they turned it down and gave hern another 6 months Maternity leave. they are back together.
Hi, Alan. I appreciated your responses to the main part of the video, but was struck by your strong feelings in the latter section of the video. I understand them, but, personally, all I have in mind at the moment are the two mass shootings in the last few days in the US, and to read that 'there have been at least 160 mass shootings across the US so far this year.' (BBC, 2023). It truly bewilders me, and makes my heart ache. Robert, uk.
I don't like mass shootings happening here either. It's one reason we need more than Universal Background checks here. We have 330 million citizens, and 400 million guns. It could be a lot worse.
this video immediately made me think of how many disgruntled workers there must be and how many result in workplace shootings and how many people are living so unhappy making them vulnerable to violent thoughts.
@@TheEclecticBeard ...Those figures are astonishing. I do suspect, regrettably, shootings will increase in the year to come. There's a lot of anger out there. Thank you for taking the time to reply. Robert.
You're speaking facts. I've seen so many comments saying people just need to stand up for themselves, get a union, walk out, but most employers here think of the word "union" as a dirty word. If they get wind of union forming, they will fire anyone involved & they will get away with it because they can terminate your employment for any reason or none at all. Besides, the way the laws are if you work for a smaller company, there would be no way you could bring a union in with a smaller number of employees. Their attitude is that there is always someone waiting in the wings to take your job, and sadly that's true. Even during truck drivers (Teamsters Union) strikes during the eighties, there were always so-called "scabs" who were willing to cross the picket line & drive the trucks. There are 335,000,000 people in the US & the majority can barely afford to put food on the table & pay for a roof over their head, so they can't risk losing their jobs. The only way a successful change could be made here is through legislation, and I don't think the majority of lawmakers here would ever be willing to change the laws & piss off their corporate donors. The quality of life here is very sad for most people.
Uk employees are quite well looked after. I worked for the NHS, I had a period of severe illness that required chemotherapy. I was given 6 months off on full pay, I was sent a large beautiful bunch of flowers from the management. I was given 28 days off paid holiday pay each year and If scheduled to work on a bank holiday it was double pay plus a day off of added to my leave. If for some reason you didn't get to use your annual leave you were paid for that leave you didn't take ( even if you were sick at the time) if you had booked annual leave days off and fell ill, you could phone into work and change those leave days to sick days.
Here in the UK maternity and paternity leave is now interchangeable between both parents so you can switch it up between the both of you.
Why the US resists changing to a more human way of working still baffles me, I know its all about profit, but the government should step in and mandate it.
Unions would work in the US if everybody was in one. In the UK train company workers were offered 8% increase in salary over 2 years, the union said no and they went on strike. They have just got a pay increase of 15%
Ha! if my boss asked me to get a replacement, i tell him to go somewhere hot. That is why the boss get the big bucks, they are the one with the responsibility to get the job done.
in the uk as soon as we start a job we get 5 1/2 weeks holiday pay
As he said, here in Brighton, 20 days annual leave and eight bank holidays all paid
Obviously, if you only work five hours a day, your days off will be paid at five hours a day
My sons company for the first three days of sick full pay after that government, statutory sick pay kicks in which isn’t as much the company top it up. His grandad died a few years ago. They immediately sent him home and said he can take as much time as he needed. After the funeral, the next day, he went to work they sent him home again they said it was family time and he would be paid. After three days, he thought he should go back to work for something to do, but they still said if he needed time, he could go home at any time. It’s the attitude of company, which gives them loyal workers. A survey was done between holiday, pay and productivity with employees and it found that people with holiday pay and good workers rights had more productive employees which made the company more money. It seems like America just wants to grind the poor people into the ground, so their shares are worth more money and now your country wants child labour laws to disappear. Gun massacres people dying, because they cannot afford medical care slave labour. Terrible thing to say, but I don’t think America have the right to call themselves the greatest country in the world
If your politicians put patches on their suits, would you be able to see any of the suit ?.
I work for a big US company, but in the UK. I get 30days holiday (plus bankholidays). Sick leave is 5 days no doctor note and 6 months per year with a note... however if you go over the 6 months it is a discussion with your manager, normally people end still full pay but you maybe will work part time part sick for a while until you can fully get back on your feet.
That is not the US company giving you those benefits but UK law which they must following.
@@zetectic7968 This.
Great go to work sick and spread it amongst the work force.
In the 25 years I worked in the UK I never received anything other than statutory sick pay at the companies I worked at so quite often I would work when ill. I’m now living in Norway and receive full pay when I’m sick. I also get paid if I need to take a day to look after the children if my partner is sick.
My wife has just been put off work for two weeks because of a minor injury to a hand, her pay stays the same because she is on sick leave. I am so glad to live in a democracy with national health care rather than a republic (USA) that does not protect it workers.
Paternity Leave may be increasing to 6 weeks in the UK.. but quite frankly 2 weeks, even small amount, is better than none but longer is definately needed
I'm from the UK but I have worked in the US.
This video raises some of the things I dislike about the US system but there are aspects I wish we could have in the UK. For example it is a nightmare firing anyone in the UK and people exploit this. Outside of the retail sector it is dangerous to fire anyone because they can easily raise false dismissal cases and cost a business a fortune fighting the case.
I was working at a lab who wanted to fire a guy who kept having sick days despite him seeming to be quite healthy on those days (his social media showed this). Then he tried to claim religious persecution because he was a Muslim and claimed the lab didn't provide a suitable prayer space, this is despite having a room put aside for him to pray several times each day. After that he claimed racial discrimination etc etc. This man did nothing in the lab and yet continued to get paid during this entire dispute which lasted 9 months.
UK law also means he could go on to another place and do the same same thing.
That would happen here as well as folks that claim the whole religious persecution or discrimination (here) do nothing that relates to their religion overtly but want to use as a way to a nice payday. That happens here as well, even in right to work states.
@@TheEclecticBeard
That particular thing may occur but it's still easier, generally speaking, to fire someone in the US than it is the UK.
Great video man, I found you through your reaction to Lily Savage.
I would like to make one thing slightly clearer with regards to Paternity pay, some companies now are offering "Enhanced Paternity pay" which means (again long as you have worked their a minimum time) you will essentially get 2 weeks full pay - as a lot of dads were taking 2 weeks holiday rather then 2 weeks crap pay.
Like always great video. Love you're honesty and respect. 🇮🇹🇧🇪🇪🇺
Sick time does _not_ come out of holiday or vacation time in the US. It may come out of "paid time off", but if your company gives PTO, it's going to be the same total hours as an equivalent firm that gives vacation plus sick leave as separate buckets of hours. So they're not taking away your vacation. What they're doing is giving you the option to take sick days for fun instead of illness.
Yeah, no, most people have to use their vacation time, to cover the days their out sick since many places don't have sick days or paid sick leave.
@@TheEclecticBeard If you get PTO, it's not vacation. It's meant to be both. When PTO was "invented", that was the deal. To add the vacation and sick days together to equal PTO
The only disadvantage of paid sick time off & generous holiday benefits scheme is that a very few people take advantage. A sick note is required from the doctor - some people are good actors in the doctor’s surgery, some people fall ill when the sun is shining, when their child is sick at home, when there’s a football (soccer) match, at the end of their holiday, some employers don’t spot the employee is missing, approaching retirement or want to p off their employer. These examples are very rare. Usually employers will have employee insurance for those off sick so both employer/employee get paid which softens the blow & the only nuisance is covering others’ absence.
Some foreign firms based in the US do offer the same terms and conditions as their home country because they want Americans to work for them.
The one good thing about working for a US company in the UK or EU is when they offer employees share (stock) options pre flotation, particularly in a chosen denominated currency. This can be extremely lucrative, although rare. Holiday bonuses are very generous too.
I live and work in the UK. I was born here. Every person in the UK pays tax and National Insurance out of their wages. the more you earn, the more you pay. National insurance is about 10% of your wages and the employers also have to same amount. This goes to fund the 'sick pay' system. Our Taxes goes towards our National Health Service and social security system. The problem with our system is that some people don't want to work but they still get social security payments even though they haven't paid into the tax and national insurance system. We also get 28 days as a minimum paid holiday, most people get more than this. Even part time workers get paid holidays. Bosses can't just fire you. They have to go through a whole process of verbal warnings, written warnings and a final warning before they can fire you.
I've just started a new job. Immediately get 6 weeks holiday.
How and why do American's tolerate being treated so poorly?
I answer that partially at the end. It's not a question of how do we tolerate, it's more of Americans have been conditioned. We would have to vote out everyone within the congressional bodies at the state and federal levels. That or use the 2nd amendment to affect the change that's needed in this country. 5000 idiots out of 80k protestors broke/ were let into, the US Capitol and they called it an insurrection. No guns, minimal violence compared to what we've seen with protests and riots in this country. Over 1000 arrests and jail sentences. I can only imagine what armed gun owners attempting something like that would be called. Voting 1 person out doesn't change shit. Neither does voting out a presidential administration since the real power lies with Congress. A democrat without a majority or with split congressional body, or a Republican with the same can't get anything accomplished since it's the congressional body that passes laws and either works with or against whoever is elected as president. They'd need a super majority of their party in Congress to accomplish anything. That's just at the federal level. At the state level you'd have to have a democrat or republican voted in and a super majority within the congressional body of the legislature of that state as well. So to change things we'd have to vote out everyone at the federal and state levels to get the president, congress, governors and state legislative super majorities we need to change change things. You see that happening. You see anything like that having ever had that likelihood in the last 100 years here?
Wait five or ten years and we'll be asking why Brits tolerate the same treatment. They're coming for worker's rights next.
@@charleswhitney3235 An awful lot of our freedoms and rights are already being eroded. And people seem oblivious.
And yes, sorry Alan, I commented a bit prematurely but did hear you saying that voting won't change a thing.
Yep, same here.
I have nothing left but contempt for the political party machine.
@@Steve-gc5nt I think we're in a lot of trouble. And the next govt will be just as bad as the stinking Tories.
I think I reiterate that on any ballet paper you need the the option for “Non of the Above”
England here, I was off 6 months with Carpal Tunnel syndrome and then surgery. Fully paid for the entirety and also gained back the holidays that I had scheduled to take but was ill instead. It's one or the other so you get them back because being ill IS NOT A HOLIDAY
Does not M16 have three round burst these days? Still 30 round clip matches school class size?
I'm on sick leave since the middle of January, my employer paid me my wage for 6 weeks then health insurance took over. Now I get paid 70% of my wage by my health insurance. It is a lot less money than my wage, but I still can cover all my necessities without worrying about losing my home and my job will still be there when I'm able to come back, because it is illegal to fire me while I am on sick leave. I'm German by the way, but this works the same all over Europe.
I spent almost 20yrs working in the USA, with the rest of my career either side of that in the UK. I GET this. There are plenty of people over here working paycheck to paycheck. We have "statutory sick pay" - its not enough to cover a living wage, but it's a statutory MINIMUM. Equivalent to full social benefits, what you'd get in benefits if you were unemployed, while YOUR EMPLOYMENT IS PROTECTED - you can't be fired while you're on the sick or on maternity leave or on short term disability. The rules for a doctor's note are set by law. Up to three days you "self-certify" - now you DO have to give info about why you were sick, whether you consider the illness is likely to recur etc, but you fill in a form and present it to your employer and you're covered. Longer than 3 days you go to your doctor and they "sign you off" until - in the doctor's medical opinion, nothing to do with your HR or payroill dept - you are fit to return to work. You start in the UK with a legal right (as a full-time guy) to 4 weeks vacation a year plus public holidays. If you're not full-time it's pro-rated based on your percentage of full-time. Paid sick days are legally mandated and TO TAKE THEM OUT OF YOUR VACATION IS ILLEGAL. It counts as "wage theft" and the company is criminally liable for it, not civilly liable requiring you to lawyer up and sue them.
A lot of this isn't absolute. Suppose you are sick with a long-term condition and it is going to impact your ability to do your job in the future. If they can make that case the company CAN let you go - but it can never count as "fired for cause" and you get full unemployment immediately, along with a good case for getting additional disability pay. But it works. Most folks get a fair shake.
Just want to correct the wording used slightly, there are no "liberals" in America. You have center right (Democrats) and far right (Republicans) there is no liberal option and the fact either can be referred to as liberal is laughable. The closest you have to a liberal is Bernie Sanders and he is considered too radical even for his own party to vote for him. I think this is the major issue for America is you only have 2 electable parties and both are right leaning just varying degrees. Each time one gets more extreme it allows the other to move even further to the right and still seem the more liberal choice. It's scary but I have no idea how you would ever resolve it.
Spot on. Always makes me laugh when they call the Democrats 'communists' and the 'extreme left'. I'm like WHAT? They're moderately right wing!
It's centre not center.
@@angelavara4097 Who elected you the grammar inspector? Only joking. Seriously. Just being daft. The spell checker is programmed to American English. Aluminium and there is a u in candour and valour. PS. I was prompted to correct those three "spoilings".
Right on. I am a moderate left (sometimes more leftdeoending on issue)in my country but look at the US in disbelief. Their right has gone so far out in the weeds that they have lost any humanity.
Lobbying is conspiracy to bribe illegal I'm most countries in UK criminal charges and sacking would follow where it is seen as corruption.
Australia 38 hrs normal hours, 4 weeks paid annual leave, 2 weeks paid sick leave, 20 weeks paid parental leave increasing to 26 weeks over next 4 years.working at a company for 10 years you get 8.66 weeks long service minimum wage is $21.8 per hour, about 10-16 days public holiday and more.
I work for an American multi-national in the UK. I am British and all the workers based in the UK, regardless of their nationality (including the Americans here), We all get sick pay (up to 6 months on full pay then ite decreases to 50% - not sure how long that goes on for), 25 days a year paid leave. We work 4 days a week plus Friday up to noon - 37 hours per week. We have the NHS for free at point of use health care (We all pay national insurance but it's a tiny amount) - after 5 days off sick a free doctors note is required. Now I'm 60 I even have free prescriptions.
Here in the UK employers usually like you to put most of your holidays in in advance so they can work around it. The company I work for pays me anyway if I'm off sick......after 1week I need a fit note from a doctor....if I loose a parent I get 2 weeks paid leave...grandparent 1 week...other relatives 3 days. Plus 28 days paid leave and bank holidays. But my employer is extremely flexible and understanding......I feel for our cousins over the pond. xx
In the mid 80s to the mid 90s I worked for our county council here in the UK as a waste haulage driver, we would be allowed 6 months sick pay on full pay including average bonus and a further 6 months on half pay. As they moved me from one depot to another further away I got three quarters of a hour overtime a day plus fuel allowance, we had 28 days holiday not including bank Holidays, however I loved the job and often worked 7 days a week ( we never bothered about driving hours regulations ) and of course we could be sunbathing on a Spanish beach still on full pay plus average bonus and my average bonus was around a hundred quid a week
In the UK if you are on annual leave and get ill if you get a drs note to prove you were unwell you get the leave days back
I will point out here, it's also different between Alba (scotland here) and England, in Alba we actually have even more benefits and rights than they do in england, including NHS benefits (scottish nhs and england nhs are separate), I get 7 weeks holiday - holidays include bank/public holidays, and I get an additional week due to being at my job for 5+ years, I think get another bump at 15+ years at my job. Bereavement by "reasonable" it's actually roughly 3 days - it depends on whether it's immediate family, friend, technically a pet can also count but that one is more depending on your employer, will determine what reasonable is, if immediately family then yeah most time off at 3 days and for when funeral is scheduled. Paternity leave is 2 weeks and for additional time will come out of holidays or authorised unpaid if you don't have holidays left or employer agrees to authorised unpaid leave.
As for firearms, I think the usa should adopt New Zealands laws and regulations regarding firearms - NZ actually has higher per-capita gun ownership than the usa, not more guns, but more people that have a gun (per capita) - as that would make everybody happy that isn't insane.
(UK) At 56 I got very ill and was off work for 2 months. I was back for a week and my mother died, so another couple of weeks off. I then returned to work and was made redundant. I was paid full pay for the 2 months and 2 weeks, full pay for unused holiday (25 days) that I hadn't taken and 4 years pay for redundancy (partly so as not to sue for moving my job). I could also cash in my pension and get 50% salary for the rest of my life in actual pension.
I retired at 57 :P
All my healthcare is free of course due to the NHS - that is worth £12,000 a year ($15K).
We had a great setup. I could work at home as I wished. Also, I had no fixed hours. I could work as few hours as I wanted if the work got done. That helped the company because I tended to work longer hours because I could choose when I worked. It suited both myself and work. I was an IT security manager.
In Britain we do tip food servers but it very little. If a bill comes to £23 we might round it up to £25 and the staff would not expect much more, Bar staff are rarely tipped although they might be told to 'Take one for yourself; ie have a drink. But this is not common,
How can a union negotiate a worse deal for workers? Don't the members get to vote on the deal before it is agreed to like they do everywhere else? Every year our union negotiates our annual pay increase and then we all have to vote to accept it or not, worst things ever got was 6 rounds of negotiation but we got a much better deal than we were originally offered.
During some twenty odd years I worked in the NZ health service I held roles as diverse as union delegate and managerial appointments. I found no conflict when I moved "upstairs" as union / management negotiations are required by legislation to be "in good faith" and combative approaches cab lead to being taken before the appropriate court where straight negotiation is monitored. In management, over pay claims, we would essentially open the books, making clear what money was ava
Continued : money available and where it was committed in the year's budget. If funding was short, the unions would see this and work to a reasonable settlement that could be afforded so as to keep business viable and paying out what could be managed at that time.
Working conditions are good here, with annual leave, sick leave and parental leave all legislated for and not left over to employers.
I understand that one US president said that the business of America is Business, so operating a wage slave system is the best way of maintaining a strong bottom line but at the cost to the people who actually meet that bottom line is high.
in the UK we riot for these rights as quite a few other countries in europe did ..they need us more then we need them and it worked
Thanks for your measured thoughts about gun ownership. As a Brit it's strange looking in but it's good to hear a response that keeps within the law bit tries to keep citizens safer.