Acts of God or “unusual weather events” have already this year twice had a significant impact on people’s ability to get into work. Something similar is bound to happen again. Next time, perhaps, it will be too hot to travel or widespread flooding will cut off great swathes of the country. In these circumstances both employers and employees need to know where they stand. In the absence of a Company policy on the subject – up till now an unusual provision - or special contractual provision one just has to go back to basic principles.
Failure to get into work because of travel difficulties, however caused but beyond the control of employer and employee, is the liability of the employee and not the employer. The employer does not have to pay for any time not worked. But care needs to be taken to ensure that the contract of employment does allow for deductions as it might be argued that not paying amounts to an unlawful deduction. In an extreme and prolonged case an employer might be able to justify dismissal without it being unfair.
However, most employers will want to be humane and constructive about such difficulties without also having to bear the brunt of the cost. Allowing the employee to use time missed as holiday might be a fair compromise. Whatever arrangements may be made after the event it is vital that all staff are treated in the same way, fairly and consistently.
In this respect it would be sensible to communicate with employees before making decisions about deductions, swopping time off for holiday or whatever. In the case of employees abroad on business when they became marooned an employer would probably have to accept that the extra costs of being abroad were the employers responsibility and time missed would still be time for which the employees should be paid.
- To what extent employees stranded abroad while on business need to maintain contact with base office and to be continuing to work by phone, email etc
- Methods of communication between marooned staff (whether at home or abroad) and their place of work for pure planning purposes and to ensure maintenance of relations with third parties.
- Whether those at home can continue to work from there
- Respect for those with a statutory right to time off to deal with emergency situations regarding their dependants. Time off for this sort of elave is generally unpaid
- Other plans to mitigate the effects of absence on the employer and the employee’s pay
- The application of the policy to other events outside the control of the employer and employee – e.g strikes or civil unrest
