Snowed in at home - no excuse to skive

A majority of staff who are forced to abandon their trip to work because of bad weather this winter may be in for a chilling shock. Their pay could be docked if they fail to show up - even if they are snowed in.

Fifty-two percent of UK employers do not pay their workers when extreme weather conditions prevent them from coming into work, according to a poll by UK employment and health & safety experts, Croner.

Although the powers of nature do not technically stand up to the employer’s right for staff to attend work (if stated in the contract of employment), it is ultimately down to the individual employer’s discretion whether they pay staff who fail to make it in.

With Met Office predictions that Britain is facing the coldest winter for a decade, employers are being advised to put adverse weather policies in place to inform snowed in staff if they will be paid as normal, and are urged to consider practical options to help them continue to work - and get paid.

Although employers are well within their rights to cut employees’ pay for unauthorised absence, they should be communicating this to their workforce now to avoid them getting any nasty surprises.

Richard Smith, employment services director at Croner, says: Despite the very worst weather conditions, every employee has a contract with their employer to show up for work each day. Although not a legal requirement, having a well-communicated adverse weather policy in place could help in certain situations to avoid conflict or confusion should an employee be late or fail to attend work altogether as a result of bad weather.

But before cutting pay, we advise employers to consider ’fairer’ options where possible and practicable, such as home-working or making up the time at a later date. And, although it might be extremely inconvenient when staff can’t get to work, employers should not risk putting their employees in danger by encouraging them to brave unsafe conditions in an attempt to get to work.

With a bit of forward planning for bad weather now, employers can feasibly allow employees to take unexpected time off as annual leave, or plan home-working solutions. With the prevalence of laptops and home internet systems, it’s now much easier to enable employees to continue to perform their duties despite not being on site.

In fact, a goodwill gesture of continuing to pay staff who can’t attend work might actually have a positive effect on business productivity and morale in the long term.

Employers should adopt a common sense approach to weather-related absences. They need to consider whether the benefits of paying staff in times of severe weather outweigh the cost of the working hours lost. A small act of goodwill by UK bosses may go along way towards keeping a happy, hard-working and safe workforce.