SQF Practitioner cover during maternity leave
So SQF says the SQF practitioner must be employed by the site as a full time employee, hold a position of responsibility to manage the food safety systems.
My question is, if i'm the QA Manager/SQF practitioner and I get pregnant anytime soon, what will be the company's options?
a. Do we hire interim QA Manager/SQF practitioner on contract to replace me? will this violate the "full-time employee" clause in SQF?
b. Can management assign the SQF practitioner role to another QA staff member, who has necessary training, knowledge and skill?
I know, this should be HR thing, but we are a small company with limited resources especially manpower. In this country maternity leave can be up to 1 year, depending on what you want and if you can afford to only have % of your income. I'm also a bit skeptic as this will halt my career, I haven't been in the company that long and you know, people can say something.
I wanted to plan ahead so I know what to do and what to recommend to my superiors/owners if this should happen.
Do you have any experience on this? especially women in this industry? If so what did you do and what did your company do?
Thank you.
That's why the SQF system requires a backup SQF Practitioner ;)
That's why the SQF system requires a backup SQF Practitioner ;)
Yes there is back-up for the function, however, i'm more concerned about the duration of having the "back-up", because ML here can be up to 1 year. Not unlike in the US which is just around 12 weeks.
Thanks for your input anyway.
The requirement is not just back up but full coverage regardless of how long the absence will be for.
Why not just have 2 SQF Practitioners, no muss, no fuss then.