Last Thursday, the high winds the country was subjected to caused a huge amount of damage. In many cases, it also made travelling dangerous or impossible. While it is still too early to tell if we will have a white Christmas (an estimate can be found here), we are now approaching the time of year where adverse weather or travel disruption means employees attendance at work may not always be possible.
Planning ahead for employees’ absence caused by weather is a valuable exercise. It can ensure that your employees may still be able to carry out some or all of their duties by working from home or through attending at an alternative work location. This ensures that the business’ productivity levels do not follow the temperature and drop to zero.
Similarly if adjustments to working hours can ensure greater employee attendance, then this is also something which should be considered. If late starts and early finishes are a way to combat the worst of the elements, this is also something that should (or could) be adopted. However, you should be clear on who has the discretion to authorise this so employees are not taking such decisions for themselves.
Where alternative working arrangements are not possible, it is also important to make it clear to employees what is expected of them in regards to making efforts to attend at work. Bad weather can often be used as a convenient excuse for those less committed employees to take a “duvet day” and employers will be no doubt keen to minimise the inconvenience the business suffers in this regard. Employees should be advised that they need to make reasonable efforts to attend at work and employers should be clear about the reporting requirements where this is not possible. Scotland is particularly prone to “4 seasons in one day” weather (albeit, this more usually means rain in the middle of summer): as such, your employees may need to be reminded that bad weather first thing in the morning does not mean they are entitled to the full day off where conditions improve as the day moves on.
If attendance is simply not possible, thought should also be given as to how that day’s absence is to be treated. Will employees be allowed to use annual leave to cover the absence? Will it be special unpaid leave? Will the employee be required to make up the lost time at a later date? Or will your company allow for extra paid leave for a restricted period?
Finally, those employees with children may also be impacted by school and nursery closures. If such issues cause them to miss work, consideration will also need to be given to their statutory right to take reasonable time off work to deal with emergencies involving their dependents.
As we are now approaching the season of goodwill, we are happy to offer you an early festive gift to help you plan your approach to absences caused by adverse weather and travel disruption. By simply subscribing to the employment blog on our website (if you’ve not done so already) and then emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to confirm your subscription, we will send you a copy of our Adverse Weather & Travel Disruption Policy free of charge.
Should your business be affected by issues over the winter period, we are on hand to provide more formal advice and assistance. Assuming we make it in to work ourselves!
