{"id":57652,"date":"2026-06-07T02:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T02:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/57652\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T02:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T02:13:18","slug":"uk-employers-face-world-cup-headache-over-staff-absence-and-late-kick-offs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/57652\/","title":{"rendered":"UK employers face World Cup headache over staff absence and late kick-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Employers are being urged to implement clear policies on staff time off, sickness absence, and flexible working as the World Cup approaches.<\/p>\n

The conciliation service Acas has advised businesses to consider a more adaptable approach to allowing employees time off during the football tournament, which is set to kick off next Thursday.<\/p>\n

Acas head of workplace advice Susan McGuigan said: \u201cThe World Cup is an exciting event for many football fans but staff should avoid getting a red card for unreasonable demands or behaviour in the workplace during this period.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany organisations need to maintain a certain staffing level to operate effectively. Bosses should have a set of simple workplace agreements in place before kick-off to help ensure their businesses remain productive whilst keeping staff on side too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Cup takes place in Canada, Mexico and the USA between 11 June and 19 July.<\/p>\n

Due to the time difference, match kick-offs in the UK will vary between 5pm and 5am, and Acas said workers may also be keen to watch or listen to the pre-match build-up.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The World Cup takes place in Canada, Mexico and the USA between 11 June and 19 JulY (Local Library)<\/p>\n

Acas said employers may want to remind staff their sickness and attendance policies still apply during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Any unauthorised absence, patterns of absence or late attendance are likely to be investigated and could result in formal proceedings.<\/p>\n

One option is to have a more flexible working day, Acas said, allowing employees to start later or finish earlier and agree to make up the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Employers are being urged to implement clear policies on staff time off, sickness absence, and flexible working as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[28150,28151,2134,28149,5,6,13444],"class_list":["post-57652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-acas","tag-adaptable-approach","tag-sickness-absence","tag-the-world-cup","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116706410872405450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}