Many of us have woken up this morning to a winter wonderland, but not everyone will be thrilled at the sight of their cars buried deep in snow and the news that local transport has been cancelled.
Travel
Different employers will have different business needs during travel disruption and bad weather. However, while employees should make every effort to get to their place of work, the need for safety outweighs the risk of a dangerous journey.
It is important, therefore, that employees keep their line manager or HR department informed as to whether it’s safe, or even possible, to commute to and from work.
Pay
There is no automatic legal right to be paid for working time employees have missed because of travel disruption or bad weather.
Whether employers can withhold pay if employees don’t get to work due to bad weather will depend on their contract, or an organisation’s usual practice. Workplace policies should clearly set out the position. However, employers should be mindful of the unfairness of withholding pay from employees who are unable to attend work through no fault of their own.
Flexible working arrangements
Employers should be flexible, fair and consistent with the alternative working arrangements they provide. When the snow or bad weather causes problems it makes sense for employers to allow staff to work from home if they can, rather than struggle with a lengthy commute to and from work.
Working from home or allowing alternative working hours could be a useful option for employers and employees to make the best of the situation.
If there is travel disruption, employers can ask staff to take paid holiday (annual leave) if they give the correct notice. This must be at least double the length of time they want employees to take in annual leave. So, for 1 day’s annual leave it would be 2 days’ notice. However, an employment contract may set down a different notice period so this would need to be checked.
Working temperatures
If low temperatures make it unsafe or uncomfortable for workers to carry out their roles, then the employer should address this. It would be reasonable, for example, to relax dress code policies to enable employees to wear warmer clothing or allow extra breaks to make hot drinks. It may be necessary for employers to provide additional heating options such as portable heaters.
Extra care should be taken for vulnerable workers, such as pregnant workers. It is important to note that if a risk cannot be avoided or removed some workers may have to be sent home to protect their health, usually on full pay.
