« HR and social media: Time to get serious | Main | Public sector HR must brace itself »

Volcano disruption: Asda will pay stranded staff


As the dust (or should that be ash?) finally settles on the huge travel disruption caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, it's good to see one of the UK's largest employers adopting a policy that puts the concerns of its workforce centre stage.

Asda is seemingly bucking the trend and pledging to pay staff who were stranded abroad and unable to get back home - or to work - when flights were grounded because of the ash cloud.

Employers are under no obligation to pay staff who are absent from work - regardless of whether it's through no fault of their own - so hearing Asda commit to investing a six-figure sum to cover pay for affected employees is welcome news.

Obviously it's far easier for an employer the size of Asda to absorb the cost, but nevertheless it means people won't lose out and staff morale gets a boost.

The disruption caused by the volcanic eruption certainly required HR teams to be creative and flexible in their approach, and follows the chaos caused by snow and the big freeze at the start of the year.

You could forgive many in the profession for wondering what Mother Nature will throw at us next.

Mike Berry |

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.personneltoday.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/145374

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on April 23, 2010 4:14 PM.

The previous post in this blog was HR and social media: Time to get serious.

The next post in this blog is Public sector HR must brace itself.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Archives

Editors' blogroll