Reports today suggest the cold snap hitting the UK is going to set up shop for at least the next fortnight – bringing with it further transport disruption, icy streets and headaches for employers.  The best way to avoid the headaches is to set out a clear and consistent policy for bad weather and stick to it with all your employees to avoid any flare-ups and ill will.

Your employees, unless otherwise specified, will be under a contractual obligation to attend work unless some form of authorised leave has been previously arranged such as holiday, maternity leave or sick leave. On a strict interpretation of this obligation, if employees do not come into work then the snow day is unauthorised leave but it is not a simple matter of deducting pay from any employees who do not attend work on a snow day as each employee has statutory protection from any unauthorised deduction from their wages without consent. The best options for you as an employer facing a snow day are to either offer employees to take the day as unpaid leave or to make the time up at a later date.

Some areas in the UK, however, will nearly become ice rinks and others will be having the snow removed and salted out of existence, so it is important to apply your common sense based on what the conditions are like where you are.

If the weather and transport links are particularly bad in your area then if you as the employer force them into work a liability for injury can arise – if this is the case then perhaps consider whether your employees could work from home. If you as employer decide to close the office at short notice due to the weather then you cannot withhold pay from your employees unless covered by their contracts or they have consented to this.

If you determine that conditions for travel to work are indeed viable then communicate this to your employees and indicate as above that any unauthorised leave will either be taken as holiday or will have to be made up at a later date, and then it will be up to the individual employee as to how keen they are to seek out the viable routes to work!