Employee Rights for Adverse Weather Conditions

How to manage Employees during adverse weather conditions

As Britain recovers from Storm Ciara, we thought it timely to share employers obligations and employee rights for working (or not) during adverse weather conditions. Whilst we haven't had any snow in the UK as yet, winter 2020 hasn't ended so, therefore knowing how to work with your employees and having a strategy and policy in place would be a good idea, especially if your employees do have to travel to your business in order to carry out their job.

Common questions we have from Employers are;

Do I have to pay staff who do not turn up for work because of the adverse weather?

      No, if staff are unable to get into work because of adverse weather, a terrorist attack or natural disaster an employer does not have to pay the employee. However, if an employee has made it to work and the employer decides to close early or send everyone home because of any of the above instances, the employer has to pay them.

‍Can I insist staff work from home?

        If the employee has at times worked from home and they are able to do their job from home then an employer can encourage them to work from home. Where an  employee is unable to do their job from home or has no provision in their contract to allow them to work from home, then the employer cannot insist. We would advise that agreement is obtained from the employee and if the employee is not willing and they are unable to come into work due to the weather the   employer does not have to pay them

‍Can we ask staff to take holiday instead

‍      Yes, if the employee has sufficient entitlement left to take and it is not booked up for other holidays.

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In the UK we are lucky that "adverse weather" does not occur regularly, therefore it doesn't hinder our working lives too much, however it DOES occur, so it is good practice that you have a policy/procedure in place that all Employees are aware of so that they everything is clear.

Lunar HR can of course assist in creating and implementing policies and procedures, alongside supporting with managing employees.

You can see our Human resource management packages or get in touch with our HR advisors for professional advice.