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[Bob Hatcher]

I am fairly lucky that my employer views us in the same light as the RNLI, Special Constables, Retained Firefighters & similar, in fact after a brief write up in the internal mag last winter they have been runniing a series on "those who volunteer" featuring all those roles that I have mentioned and several others. The general view is that if an employee is likely to go out of his way to help the community he is likely to have a similar attitude to work. They are fully aware of my role at both national and local level and seem to have no issues with it.There have been occasions when they've asked when I'm going to leave for a 'shout'. The biggest problem from my point of view is just to ensure that I don't run out of'holiday' -some holiday- otherwise I have to take it as unpaid leave. There've also been occasions, Pandemic Flu for instance, when thay've asked me for the latest info as they know that I have easy access to some documents that they don't



On the Wessex site we have a proforma letter that can be sent to employers - I am conscious that we mustn't take the mcikey, so usually discuss anything likely to last more than a day or two.