The recent severe weather has caused significant problems for both employers and employees in the North East as employees struggle to get to and from the workplace, schools and nurseries are closed and access to the workplace may have become unsafe.
If an employee is unable to get to work either on time or at all then the employer should consider on a case by case basis whether this is a genuine reason. Assuming it is a genuine reason then it will not give the employer grounds to allege misconduct. Of most concern to the employee will be whether they get paid for the time away from the workplace. In the absence of any specific right in their contract of employment the answer is likely to be that they are not entitled to be paid. In practice most employers may tend to either turn a blind eye to a one off occurrence or if the absence is prolonged to seek to agree with the employee that they either use their paid holiday entitlement or take unpaid leave.
The effect of school and nursery closures has been felt hard in the last week. I know this from personal experience as my son’s nursery closed yesterday due to a broken boiler and an icy car park. Many parents are unable to make alternative arrangements at short notice and have no option but to stay at home and look after the kids themselves. Section 57A of the Employment Rights Act makes provision for this and gives parents the legal right to take unpaid leave in these circumstances. From an employers point of view the most important step to take is to have a policy in place setting out who the employees should notify in these circumstances and to publicise that policy.
A further issue for employers to consider is whether the access to the workplace and the workplace itself remains safe. Accidents caused by the severe weather may lead to employers and occupiers liability claims.
The most important point to make in relation to all of these potential problems is that common sense should prevail and that safety of employees should be the main concern. In the medium term employers can seek to mitigate against these problems by introducing home working policies and more detailed disaster management plans. However, in the short term its time to wrap up warm and be sensible.
Mark Green · January 8, 2010