If you are a partner or family member of someone having cancer treatment and you need to take time off work to look after them, you may be entitled to take compassionate leave, dependency leave or unpaid leave to enable you to do this. If your relative does not need much care, but cannot be left alone for long, your employer may be able to change your working arrangements to allow you to work from home.

From the 6th April 2007, an employee who is caring or expected to be caring for an adult (aged 18 or over) will have the right to request flexible working. The employee must be married to (or the partner or civil partner of) the person, a relative or living at the same address.

Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, employees have a statutory right to Time off for Dependants. Under this law, an employee may take reasonable time off to make necessary arrangements to deal with an unexpected or sudden problem concerning a dependant. A dependant is someone that you have responsibility for, such as a child or an elderly parent.

An example of this is that if an employee’s mother has cancer and the mother’s condition unexpectedly got worse so that she needed care at home, the employee may be allowed a few days off to arrange that care. However, the employee would not have a right to take time off work for more than a couple of days to provide that care themselves.

Some organisations only allow you to do this for a short time and will not allow you to take much time off. Dependency leave is usually unpaid but some employers have policies which allow paid leave to be taken. Guidance leaflets on time off for dependants can be found at www.dti.gov.uk/er/intguid1.ht

A parent of a child with cancer may also be entitled to up to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave to look after the child. Some employers may allow paid leave to be taken, and some allow longer than the official entitlement. Guidance leaflets on parental leave can be found at www.dti.gov.uk/er/timeoff.htm

Some family members of people with cancer may experience discrimination. Family members are not covered by the Disability Discrimination Act and there is less legal protection for family members or carers. However, if you are a relative or carer of a person with cancer and you experience discrimination at work you can get advice on your employment rights from some organisations.