Employers are expecting workers to turn up to the office regardless of weather conditions, even where extreme snowfall causes severe delays.
According to Croner, fifty-two percent of employers polled believe that adverse weather is insufficient grounds for additional paid leave.
But advises Croner, with occurrences of freak weather on the rise, bosses might do well to reverse their policies.
Richard Smith, employment law expert at Croner commented: “Come rain, hail or shine, all staff have a contract with their employer to show up for work each day. Although not a legal requirement, having an “adverse weather policy” could help in certain situations to avoid conflict or confusion should an employee be late for work or fail to attend all together.”
Croner offers the following alternative solutions to cutting pay for weather induced absence:
- allowing staff to take time as annual leave
- provision of home-working solutions
- option to make up for lost time
“With the prevalence of laptops and email, it’s now much easier to enable employees, particularly those at managerial level, to continue to perform their duties without having to be onsite.
“They could also consider the benefits of paid leave as a goodwill gesture to employees, which can help boost morale, motivation and loyalty.
Forty-eight percent of employers we surveyed are already doing this and should be making staff aware of this extra perk,” said Smith.
5 Responses
Snow Joke
In over 30 years of work and with 10 different employers I have never failed to get to work because of the weather. Yes, sometimes I have been late waiting for the Council to unblock roads, but I have found ALL employers to be flexible regarding this. The problems lie with some employees who think the, so called, bad weather is an excuse for an extra day off.
I moved to Aberdeenshire in 2000 and in the first winter (2000/01) I had to encounter over seven foot drifts of snow but the council and farmers did clear the roads and I got to work (never much more than an hour late). Some colleagues who lived nearer to the work (I passed close by their houses) did not get in, because of the bad weather – no because they could not be bothered to make the effort is nearer the truth.
That’s the problem faced by employers and I agree that each circumstance should be looked at on an individual basis.
Snow Excuse
Our staff handbook states that not being able to attend due to inclement weather (or bad public transport etc) is not acceptable and that the employee would have to take either holiday or make up the time on their flexi.
I think if there was a major issue (like 6 foot of snow) and nobody could leave their homes the company would probably reconsider this policy and pay everyone for that day.
With the level of snow and bad weather that we get in the south west i see no reason why people can’t make it to work.
Adverse weather and organisational climate
If employees see adverse weather as a reason to stay home is a combination of factors: the actual state of the travelling conditions, the attitude of the individual employee and, most tellingly in the long term the climate of employment within the organisation. Sure, the snow may be so deep, that the employee can’t make it to work or is concerned about driving in such conditions. Sure, occaisionally we have the employee with the attitude which leaps at any opportunity to miss work. But the largest factor is the climate within which the person works. Do they feel needed, valued, important for organisational success? Or do they feel an anonymous cog in the greater organisation? Not just snow, but for any number cultural reason, employees decide that they will stay home rather than make their way to work.
Dick Bunning
former HR Director
Multi -site
I have been part of 2 large multi-site organisations (1 transport and 1 retail)in both instances the option of reporting to the nearest site to home was available in cases of severe adverse weather conditions. An emplyee can peform useful work even if unable to do their usual duties
Adverse weather
Adverse weather is not a valid reason for not turning in to work. It might take longer to get to work, but the employer still has to satisfy it’s customers, and therefore employees cannot abdicate their responsibilites to their job and employer.
As individuals, we would all be disappointed if services such as our doctors practice suddenly closed because of the weather when we needed to see them, and the same goes for other services.
However, employers should consider sympathetically employees who are late for work given the circumstances of their indiviual journeys to their workplace.