As millions of people are urged to stay at home in Northern Ireland and Scotland due to Storm Éowyn’s 100mph winds, where do employers stand if staff cannot get to work?
With the Met Office issuing a rare red weather warning, we answer five common questions on the impact of severe weather conditions.
1. Do I have to pay employees who cannot get to work because of severe weather?
In principle, you would be within your rights to refuse to pay an employee who does not appear for work because of severe weather such as heavy snow.
This is because an employee who is not working is not fulfilling his or her contract of employment, and so you do not have to pay him or her.
This is the case even if the employee’s non-appearance is out of his or her control, for example because of extreme weather conditions.
However, this is one of those employment scenarios where the letter of law says one thing, but common sense dictates a more pragmatic approach.
The financial burden on your business of paying staff even though they are not working because of bad weather may be outweighed by the benefits.
Staff morale and your reputation as a good employer may benefit in the long run if you pay staff on a snow day.
2. What are my options if I need employees to work even though the weather is bad?
In this day and age, many jobs can be done from home, and employees who frequently work at home should be encouraged to do so when bad weather approaches.
Do I really need a policy on severe weather?
You may need the policy only a few times a year, but it is a good idea to make your workforce aware of the rules that will apply if they have difficulty getting to work because of bad weather.
The policy can be open ended enough to include disruptions caused by anything from natural disasters and severe weather to public transport strikes and terrorist attacks.
However, employers need to be careful about asking employees to work at home when a requirement to do so is not included in their contracts of employment.
If it is not, to require an employee to work at home in severe weather will constitute a unilateral variation of contracts of employment requiring consultation in advance with affected staff.
Employers should also consider the health and safety aspects of homeworking before imposing a homeworking requirement: some employees’ homes will simply not be set up to be turned into a temporary workplace.
3. Can employees take periods when they cannot get to work because of poor weather as annual leave?
Where employees are unable to get to work because of bad weather, taking the time as paid annual leave may be an option.
There is nothing to stop you asking if employees would like to take extra holiday if they are unable to get to work.
Many employees will find taking paid holiday preferable to losing a day’s pay.
However, there may be circumstances in which this might not be possible. For example, where the employee wishes to keep their leave for a foreign holiday.
If you are going to insist that employees take the time as holiday, you must give them the minimum statutory notice.
4: If I close my workplace because of bad weather, do I have to pay my staff?
Did you know…?
Health and safety laws do not provide a legal minimum workplace temperature. The temperature in all workplaces inside buildings must be “reasonable”. The Health and Safety Executive recommends two minimum temperatures: one for sedentary work and one where the work requires physical effort.
If employees are working from home, you must pay them their normal wages.
If an employee is unable to work because you have made the decision to close the premises, this will in effect be a period of lay-off.
You should pay your employees their normal wage, unless there is a contractual provision allowing for unpaid lay-off, or the employees agree to being laid off without pay.
5. I have employees with children at schools and nurseries that are closed because of the severe weather. Do I have to give them time off when they have nowhere to put their children?
Employees have the statutory right to a reasonable period of unpaid time off for dependants.
The right applies where an employee needs to take time off work because of unexpected disruption to the care arrangements for a dependant.
The right to time off for dependants would clearly apply where schools or nurseries close because of severe weather.
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An employee taking advantage of this right must inform you of the reason for the absence, and likely length of the absence, as soon as he or she can.
This article was originally published in January 2017.
12 comments
Regarding the right to unpaid leave for dependents…does this not only apply to the right to unapdi leave for the purposes of arranging alternative childcare, rather than to actual provide the care yourself?
Nic – I think you are right (I’m just in HR so this is not a legal answer) but certainly employees generally tend to think the entitlement is for them to take unpaid time off to provide the care. I think it would be reasonable to consider that on the first day of disrupted care arrangements the parent could be dual-tasking – ie looking after the child at the same time as trying to arrange alternative childcare – but after that (and certainly after two days) I would argue they are not covered by this right. Unfortunately, in reality, I think employers have their hands tied because (in my experience) parents tend not to have any pre-arranged ‘option 2’ childcare in place and find it difficult to find someone to look after children at short notice, so have to stay at home themselves. Arguably the employer could sanction the employee but (and especially since the absence is unpaid) that probably doesn’t achieve much other than make the employer seem unsympathetic!. If a particular person regularly took time off due to failed childcare arrangements, I would have a conversation to point out their actual rights and suggest they get some emergency back-up in place in principle to avoid absence in future.
I am in a position of being a worker for my local council but under a zero hours contract(effectivly). I teach in children’s home who cannot access school. The council have said they are under no obligation to pay if we cannot get to work, and there is no chance in this job of working from home. We have a contract but there is no adverse weather terms.
Where does an employer stand if the Police say do not travel ? And secondly what would your view be if as an employer, an extra days holiday was given to employees who made the effort to get into work. Those who didnt would not be have an time deducted.
What if employers just suit their self at that time! Bad weather meant my husband was sent home, employer asked if he had holidays??? If employer sends you home, why should you have to use your holiday entitlement??! Now employer wants to change contract to reflect adverse weather conditions, he doesn’t pay average holiday pay and wants everything his own way! Reality check – employers not always right! Employers need to realise his staff keep him in money, greedy to the core
i started out to work but because of heavy snow fall,we had to abandon our journey to work and retaurn home,do we get payed our basic hours for this or not
What if an employee agrees with the employer to work from home, but the employer’s IT systems fail meaning that the employee can not do so? Should the employee be penalised for that?
Apart from this, the maternity period of women also has a major impact on the results. How to handle this? Initially, they have agreed to commit for a 3 months period but now they tend to violate that. How to proceed with this?
if employee makes the effort to go to work & government did highlight not to travel or avoid going by car ,most transport was cut back or stopped company have a responsibility to their staff to make sure they are safe & any good employer would do the right thing ,government should play its part when red alerts are called .
would agree with that
During the bad weather I was at work all week, but many colleagues were not. They have been given 2 days ‘free holiday’ (i.e. not made to take it as annual leave or unpaid), but have not credited people like myself, who made it to work, with extra pay or holiday, which does not seem very fair given that means we’ve effectively lost out on two extra days holiday. Are we entitled to any recompense in lieu of attending work?
Employers should get geared up to work from home it is a digital work you do not have to come in to the office every day
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