How Should You Deal With Snow Days?

Reporting of Absence
Employers are advised to have a policy in place, which requires employees to report a late arrival at work or absence from work and the reason for it as soon as possible on the day of each absence. The policy should be communicated to employees e.g. in team meetings, by email or on the works noticeboard.
If the reason for absence is problems with travel, managers may wish to explore with the employee whether there are alternative travel arrangements that may enable them to get to work. However, employers should avoid putting undue pressure on employees to travel to work in conditions that may be unsafe.
Employees have a right to time off to care for a dependent in an emergency situation. If the reason for absence is that a child’s school has been closed, managers may wish to explore with the employee whether appropriate arrangements for childcare may be made such as leaving the child with a family member or close friend. However, again, employers should avoid putting undue pressure on employees in this situation because the employee has the right to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off in order to care for their child.

Flexible Working
Employers will need to minimise the disruption caused to business by absent employees. It may be appropriate to require employees to make up time lost due to the poor weather or to consider flexible working options such as working from home or from a different branch, office or site that may be nearer to their home.

Payment
If an employee does not attend work due to problems with travel or the closure of their child’s school, then they are not legally entitled to be paid for that day’s absence – unless their contract of employment says otherwise. Employers may therefore choose whether or not to pay employees for such absence.
Alternatively, Employers may wish to offer employees the option of taking the absence as paid holiday leave and deduct it from their annual holiday entitlement.
Either way, employers are advised to have a policy in place, which makes clear what payments an employee will/will not receive in relation to such absence. It may be worthwhile issuing a notice now to confirm how this week’s snow days will be dealt with. If employers have in the past paid employees for such absence or allowed them to make the time up, they should take advice before changing their practices.
Employers should note that if an employee is prevented from attending work because their place of work has been closed then the employee should be paid as they may otherwise have been willing/able to work.

Disciplinary Matters
If an employer is concerned that an employee is using the bad weather as an excuse to take a day off, they may invoke their normal disciplinary procedure. However, employers are advised to ensure that the employee is given an opportunity to explain their position and that the use of the disciplinary procedure and disciplinary sanctions is fair and consistent.

Discrimination
In order to avoid claims of discrimination from employees who find dealing with the snow particularly troublesome (for example: mothers or employees with a disability), it is important that a consistent approach is taken to handling snow related absence –including discussions with employees about their absence and attempts to get to work, use of flexible working options, payment for absence and the use of disciplinary action. If an employer is unsure whether the actions that they propose taking may have a discriminatory impact on employees they should seek advice before taking those actions.

Health and Safety
And finally, employers have a duty to employees (and others) to provide a safe work environment, which will include clearing paths and roads of ice and snow, ensuring that surfaces indoors are kept dry and not slippery, and providing adequate heating.
Posted Monday 14th of January 2013