Inclement weather – what can you do?
How did Storm Ophelia and the Beast from the East affect your business? Did you close down operations when Met Eireann gave severe weather warning for the entire country? How long did you close your business for? How did you handle the pay issue for employees who were scheduled to work during the hours and days of the weather warnings?
Many employers headed the severe weather warnings, closed their businesses for health & safety reasons and paid their employees as normal up to 3 days’ pay for the two severe weather events in Ireland in Quarter 1 of 2018. In some instances employees worked from home, where practicable or were given the option to take paid annual leave for the workdays missed or were unpaid. What did you do? What will you do the next time there is a severe weather warning in your area?
At present there is no legislation in Ireland in place that gives guidance to either employees or employers as to what happens when inclement weather conditions prevent work from taking place. The general rule is if the workplace remains open and employees fail to turn up to work, (even if they are unable to attend due to the weather conditions), there is no requirement to pay, unless custom and practice, the contract of employment or company policy establishes otherwise.
Where an employer has included a “lay-off” clause within their contract of employment that states employees can be laid off work; where, through circumstances beyond the employer’s control, they are unable to provide work temporarily, the employee(s) will be unpaid during the period of “lay-off”. In order to rely upon this clause, the employer needs to be able to show that they provided as much notice as is “reasonably practical” regarding the period of “lay-off” to the affected employees.
If employees were asked to turn up to work and were then sent home, it is likely that this would not be seen as reasonable notice, and the employer would be liable to pay. Alternatively, if employees were advised of the closure of the business as soon as possible after their area entered the “red warning” zone, it is possible that employers may be able to rely upon the lay-off clause, provided it is included in the contract of employment.
However in general the rule tends to apply that if the workplace is closed by the employer, on foot of a red weather warning, then the employees normally scheduled to work should be paid. Of course the length of time that a business remains closed and unable to trade due to an inclement weather event and the normal payment of wages to employees for the period does need to be carefully managed.
Therefore in the absence of legislation or clear guidance on the matter from statutory bodies it is prudent for each organisation to look to its own situation and devise an Inclement Weather policy & procedure, clearly communicated to all employees.
When designing your policy decide how you are going to treat the periods of time when employees are unavailable for work due to inclement weather or other circumstances outside their control.
- For Health & Safety reasons and on foot of a red weather warning from Met Eireann and the Government will the business automatically close for the duration of the red warning only?
- Will employees be automatically paid their normal rate of pay for scheduled work during the period the business is closed regardless of whether they can reasonably work from home or not?
- Have some or all employees the capacity to carry out their work from home for the duration of the disruption? How can this be managed and facilitated i.e. from an IT perspective.
- Where an employee cannot attend for work or cannot carry out his or her normal duties remotely, will the options of taking paid annual leave or unpaid time off be presented to each employee? Will daily approval of this be required for the duration of the disruption? How long might this be accommodated for before a “lay-off” situation may need to be considered?
- Where employees arrive late or leave early from work, whilst some flexibility may be provided, will paid leave be given for the work time lost? Will employees be required to work up the time missed at a later date, usually within one month of the occurrence? Can this be managed through the existing flexi-time system in operation in the company? Alternatively, can the option of unpaid leave or annual leave (broken into hours) be considered?
- Where an employee is away on company business and unable to make it back to their normal place of work, is it possible for them to work electronically from a remote location?
- Where an employee is on annual leave when a weather-related event occurs and is unable to return to work due to travel restrictions, will the employee be allowed to extend their annual leave or be given authorised unpaid leave during this time?
- Where schools or crèches close, an emergency leave situation may result for some employees. Where the employee is unable to make alternative arrangements, will annual leave or unpaid leave at short notice be considered for them?
Were the recent severe weather events exceptional or are we likely to experience more over the coming years? Not even the meteorologists can predict this! Best therefore to put a clearly communicated policy and procedure in place now for any future eventualities rather than having to address each time in the eye of the storm.
For more information on drafting an Inclement Weather policy & procedure for your organisation and awareness training for managers and employees please contact Complete HR using the contact form below.