Whether it’s a storm battering the coastline, flooding closing roads, snow bringing transport to a standstill, or a heatwave pushing temperatures to dangerous levels, adverse weather presents real challenges for employers trying to balance operational needs with employee safety and legal obligations.
The questions come thick and fast when weather warnings are issued. Do we close the office? Can we insist staff come in? What if someone can’t get to work, or feels it’s unsafe to travel? And crucially, do we have to pay them?
The answers aren’t always straightforward, but careful preparation and clear policies can help you navigate these situations with confidence, protecting both your people and your business.
The legal framework
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires you to ensure the health, safety and welfare of your employees so far as is reasonably practicable. That duty doesn’t disappear when the weather deteriorates. In fact, it becomes more acute. You need to protect staff from adverse weather conditions, which might mean ensuring the workplace itself is safe, or recognising when it’s unreasonable to expect people to travel.
Risk assessments of workplace conditions aren’t optional. ACAS guidance states clearly that employers shouldn’t encourage staff to travel when conditions are unsafe, particularly where Met Office warnings advise against all but essential journeys.
Employees have their own protections under the Employment Rights Act 1996. A worker cannot be subjected to any detriment for refusing to attend work, or for protecting themselves, when they reasonably believe they’re facing serious or imminent danger. Travelling through a severe storm or across flooded roads could well fall into that category.
When employees must attend work
Usually, employees are expected to attend work as normal unless there’s a good reason why they can’t. Adverse weather creates several legitimate exceptions.
If you’ve closed the workplace because of weather conditions, employees obviously aren’t required to attend. You’ll generally need to keep paying them in these circumstances, since they were ready and able to work but you made the decision to close.
Transport disruption causes the most frequent problems. When trains stop running, bus services are suspended, or roads become impassable, employees may genuinely be unable to reach work. What matters here is reasonableness. Has the person made genuine efforts to get in? Is the disruption affecting everyone in the area, or just them? You need to look at the context.
Weather also disrupts childcare arrangements. Schools and nurseries close their doors when conditions become unsafe, leaving working parents with difficult choices. Employees have a statutory right to take reasonable unpaid time off when care arrangements for a dependant break down unexpectedly, which includes weather-related closures. This right covers the time needed to sort out alternative arrangements, not indefinite absence.
Then there are employees who feel uncomfortable travelling even when transport is technically running. This requires more careful handling. While you should take genuine safety concerns seriously, you can reasonably expect people to make proper efforts to get to work. Each case needs individual assessment. How severe are the conditions? How far does this person need to travel? Are they particularly vulnerable? What is the Met Office saying about travel?
The question of pay
Whether you must pay employees who don’t work their usual hours during bad weather causes considerable anxiety for employers.
Start with the basics: employment contracts entitle employees to their pay, but they generally need to provide work in return. No work might mean no pay, though this depends heavily on what your contracts and policies actually say.
When you close the workplace due to weather, you’ll normally need to continue paying staff. They turned up ready to work, or would have done, but you’ve decided to shut the doors. The decision was yours, not theirs.
If the workplace stays open but an employee can’t get in because of transport chaos or genuinely hazardous conditions, the legal position gets murkier. Strictly, you might not be obliged to pay them. But making deductions from wages is legally complex. Unless your contract specifically permits deductions for weather-related absence, doing so could amount to an unlawful deduction from wages.
Most employers find a middle way. Rather than immediately docking pay, consider offering alternatives: working from home where feasible, making up the hours later, using annual leave, or starting later when conditions improve. This keeps people on your side while maintaining some business continuity.
Preparing before severe weather arrives
Don’t wait until adverse weather is forecast to figure out your approach. Groundwork done in advance saves considerable stress later.
Sort out your policies first. An adverse weather policy needs to spell out clearly what happens when severe weather strikes. Cover how you’ll communicate workplace closures, when employees should and shouldn’t attempt to travel, what alternative working arrangements exist (remote working, flexible hours, etc.), how absence gets recorded, and critically, what it means for pay.
Get this policy out to staff well before you need it and make sure it’s easy to find. Mid-crisis isn’t the moment for everyone to be searching through the employee handbook.
Business continuity planning matters too. Which roles absolutely must be filled? Can work be done remotely? How will you reach staff if they can’t come in? What’s your plan for keeping customers or clients informed?
Don’t neglect your physical premises. What specific risks does adverse weather create for your workplace? Flood risk if you’re in a low-lying area? Heat stress if there’s no air conditioning? Ice and snow on the paths outside? Your risk assessments should cover these scenarios, with proper plans to manage them.
Consistency in applying your policies is crucial. If you pay one employee who couldn’t make it through snow but refuse to pay another in similar circumstances, you’re creating legal risks and damaging employee relations. The same applies to remote working. Allowing some people to work from home while refusing others without proper justification breeds resentment.
Remote working and flexibility
For businesses where remote working is possible, it’s often the simplest answer to adverse weather problems. Work continues, people stay safe, nobody loses pay.
Many roles can’t be done remotely, of course. Customer service, manufacturing, healthcare and numerous other sectors require physical presence. In these situations, flexibility might look different: letting people start later when conditions improve, arranging shift swaps, or temporarily reassigning duties.
Clear remote working policies help considerably. When employees know in advance they can work from home during severe weather, they’re more likely to be properly set up to do so effectively when the need arises.
Handling absences fairly
How you manage weather-related absences affects staff morale and your reputation as an employer. Being heavy-handed when people face genuine difficulties doesn’t just damage relationships. It can land you in tribunal.
If you suspect someone’s exploiting bad weather as an excuse when others managed to attend, proceed carefully. You’re entitled to investigate and potentially discipline genuine misconduct, but you’ll need evidence and you must consider individual circumstances. Were they genuinely at risk? Did they make reasonable efforts to attend? Are they claiming impassable roads when everyone else got through fine?
Document everything properly. Keep records of who attended, what the weather conditions were, what transport disruptions occurred, and what efforts people made to get in. This protects you if you later need to justify treating different employees differently.
When closing becomes necessary
Sometimes you simply have to close the workplace. The premises might be unsafe (flooding, structural damage, no heating in freezing conditions), staff safety might be compromised, or operations might be impossible to maintain.
Closing has consequences. You’ll generally need to keep paying staff, you’ll face business interruption, customers or clients might be disappointed. None of that outweighs your fundamental duty to keep people safe.
Communicate closure decisions as early as you possibly can. Staff need time to adjust plans, and may need to arrange care for dependants even though they’re not coming to work. Use multiple communication channels to ensure everyone gets the message, particularly people who don’t check work email outside office hours.
The broader perspective
How you handle adverse weather situations says something important about you as an employer. Showing understanding and flexibility when people face genuine difficulties builds loyalty and trust. Being rigid and punitive when staff are doing their best in difficult circumstances achieves the opposite.
This isn’t about paying everyone for every absence, or never expecting reasonable efforts to attend work. It’s about balancing business needs against employee welfare, and communicating clearly so everyone understands what’s expected.
Adverse weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense. Preparation has moved from sensible to essential. Get your policies sorted, communicate them clearly, and when severe weather arrives, you’ll be well positioned to handle it appropriately.
