Anyone know what is the legal stuff on pay in relation to having the odd day of work for illness/stress and/or childcare duties? I recently had a day off had to look after my kid for the day in an emergency (wife was ill) – result was i lost a days pay. Seemed fair at the time but now i'm wondering if i should have lost wages for that day? Small co though, less than 10 employees. Anyone know?

If they don't want to pay you & you have nothing in your contract then no, they don't have to pay you

Paternity leave etc. excluded

I think that's right, you are entitled to unpaid time off for emergencies such as childcare etc.
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"In addition, almost all employees have a right to take time off work, although not necessarily with pay, for the following:-

to participate in trade union activities
to perform ‘public duties’, for example, being a JP, local authority councillor or school governor
to care for their children. People who have worked for their employer for one year have the right to unpaid parental leave. You are entitled to 13 week's unpaid leave before your child is five. However, if your child is disabled, you get 18 week's leave which must be taken before the child is 18
to attend to unexpected problems with dependants, for example, where child minding arrangements break down. A dependant includes anyone who reasonably relies on the employee"

here in Norway you would get paid. Its the law.

What does it say in your contract?

4 days after giving birth my mrs was rushed into hospital for appendix out so i had a 4 day old a two year old to look after . i rang in urgent domestic and took off 5 days (two of which she was in hospital for) i then got back to work even tho mrs couldnt cope on her own with baby and was took in the office and told if i didnt cancel some of my prebooked leave to cover the days off id have them taken from me anyway 😉 apparently my case wasnt urgent domestic lol on appeal i was given the two days she was actually in hospital back. fookers lol

What does it say in your contract?

It's not stated. I'm not saying i should get paid, i'm more curious of the legal sit.

It's up to the employer – discretion of management.
At the place I've just quit they initially tended to pay stuff like that and sick leave without too much quibble. Then due to bad management the place went tits up, several people (inc me) got made redundant, wages were cut and sick / compassionate leave got completely reviewed.
Although they later took back a lot of the people they'd initially made redundant, they kept the new leave policy. Basically it now comes out of your holiday or is unpaid.

I'm glad I've got out of there now, management didn't have a clue of how to handle the situation and the current policy of no sick pay and no compassionate leave discretion is just annoying people.

It is explicit in our terms that we have 5 days to deal with family emergencies, above that then it has to be out of annual leave. I don't think there is any legal responsibility to pay you

theres alot of grey areas about sick pay etc ,basically it your employers discretion, but you or your other half are entitled to parental leave for a kid under the age of 5, you can take 15 weeks leave (this does not include maternity leave)the 15 weeks are between you not each .if you have a kid under the age of 18 years with a disability you are entitled to 21 weeks leave. all parental leave it up to your employer to pay you if they want .

this is on the governments own web site you ll just have to do a bit searching or if you have a union rep if you can be arsed