Snow stops play - what can I do?
Winter is here for sure and the severe weather warnings are back on the news. What can employees and employers do if they can't get to work?
Weather warning!
It looks as though winter has finally arrived, with very cold temperatures and the risk of snow and gale force winds. This is the first significant cold weather we have had and we’re almost into December.
One thing that is virtually guaranteed in the UK is when the snow falls traffic grinds to a standstill. Workers cannot get to work, business owners close down temporarily and everybody has a fun time for about six hours, until the novelty wears off and we desperately want to get out and about again.
From an employment law perspective adverse weather can cause some significant issues, so here are a few tips for both employers and employees to get through these testing times.
From the employer’s perspective
An employer you has a duty to provide work and staff have a duty to attend work. That’s the starting point.
From an employers’ perspective, if it cannot open the workplace, thought should be given to granting an extra day of holiday. An employer cannot insist that staff take holiday unless twice as much notice is provided as the amount of holiday to be taken, so it is unlikely they are going to be able to comply with such a provision if there is an imminent closure - hence the extra day.
Furthermore an employer cannot make staff take a day as ‘unpaid leave’ because that would result in a breach of the employment terms.
Lay-off
Lay-off is when an employer does not have any work to do, so in this instance it may be a route an employer can take. Lay-off is for one day or more - there’s no limit, although after a period employees can request to be made redundant if lay-off persists.
Employees who do not get paid for lay-off are entitled to a guarantee payment from the government - but it is limited to £30 a day for 5 days in any 3 month period - so a maximum of £150.
But, before employers start thinking this is a major get out of jail free card, there is one very important point to note. An employer MUST be contractually entitled to place an employee on lay-off, and surprisingly few have such a clause inserted into their staff contracts.
From the employee’s perspective
What if a member of staff is unable to get into work due to adverse weather conditions and the workplace is fully open? It would hardly seem fair if they were placed on a disciplinary for being late or failing to turn up altogether through no fault of their own.
Staff are not entitled to be paid for lateness or failing to turn up at all, so an employer has a number of options at their disposal, such as:
Working from home.
Granting a request to take the time off as a last minute holiday request.
Allowing staff to work additional hours to make up for those lost.
Allowing staff to take the time off as unpaid leave.
HR just love policies and the best way to address the issue of getting to work during adverse weather is to have an Adverse Weather Policy.
Adverse Weather Policy
The policy sets out what is expected of staff and what measures they should take to avoid missing work through inclement weather conditions, such as making alternative travel arrangements if there is a likelihood of disruption, checking with local bus and train companies in advance and booking overnight accommodation with hotels, friends or relatives if they live some distance from the workplace.
It should also set out what the position is with regard to pay or time off as there are a number of options as stated above.
Employers also have health and safety obligations towards employees so they must be careful not to insist staff attend when it is clearly not safe to do so, particularly if it is against the advice of the emergency services. A policy should be drafted carefully to balance the needs of the business with the safety of employees.
I could do with a coffee and a cake!
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Access to all previous newsletters, Q&As and Case of the Week.
The platform I am using is free from advertising and does not suffer from those annoying pop-ups, so currently I receive no remuneration from the publications I write. I would like to offer more to all my readers, perhaps a podcast soon and some more in the way of template letters and just more content.
I am therefore proposing to move to a paid subscription service from next month. This will not mean that the free newsletter will end, but they will reduce in number.
I would like to think I’m worth a decent latte and a piece of cake, and my reckoning is that comes to about £8 at one of the very trendy cafes I frequent, so I’m setting my monthly subscription price at £7.99 as of 6th December.
If you think I’m worth a coffee and cake once a month please support me, I would be eternally grateful.
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