1. To pay or not to pay?
If an employer fails to pay a worker when they have a legal right to be paid, they may bring an Employment Tribunal claim for unlawful deduction from wages. Employees who have no guaranteed hours and are only paid for the work they turn up and do, may well have no contractual right to be paid when they cannot perform work. The position is more complicated for employees who receive a set salary for being ready and willing to work, even if they are not provided with any work to do.
There are also practical reasons why an employer might want to pay staff who are unable to get to work in any event. These include:
- cutting pay may damage employee relations and staff morale;
- adverse press coverage if employers are seen as refusing to pay staff who are unable to travel in; and
- abuse of sick leave by staff, who hope to claim company sick pay by falsely calling in sick.
On the other hand, paying staff who cannot travel in and who do no work, may lead to resentment from colleagues who make what they perceive to be an extraordinary effort to get to their workplace. Such resentment may be mitigated by an employer in some way recognising the efforts of those who turn up to work.
2. Health and safety
Employees and workers also have the right not to suffer a detriment because they leave, propose to leave, or refuse to return to their workplace in certain dangerous circumstances. The legislation can also cover situations where staff take or propose to take appropriate steps to protect themselves or others from danger. This means that refusing to pay a worker who has not come to work in severe adverse weather conditions, could result in them bringing an Employment Tribunal claim for compensation on the basis that they have suffered a detriment. Further, dismissing an employee in certain health and safety situations carries the risk of automatic unfair dismissal claims, which can be brought by employees with any length of service.
3. Alternatives
Alternatives to an employee needing to attend their workplace during times of disruption may include:
- homeworking;
- allowing the employee to work from employer premises more closely located to their home;
- giving employees the option to use paid annual leave; and
- allowing staff to make up the lost hours on other days.
4. Implement a policy
An Adverse weather and travel disruption policy could provide helpful guidance on how your organisation will deal with such eventualities. In turn, it would be prudent to circulate the policy internally before any anticipated disruption, and ensure that business leaders are aware of their responsibilities.
If you have any queries regarding this or any other employment matter, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team.
