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HR Grapevine seeking views from HR experts

ended 30. November 2021

A journalist at HR Grapevine is looking for comments from HR (and ideally legal) experts for a piece on Storm Arwen and how this could impact work. 

  • What can HR do if employees cant get into work? (e.g. allow them to work from home)
  • What happens if staff work from home and lose power? Do they have to take time off?
  • If the schools are closed, should parents be able to work flexibly?

Deadline is EOP Tuesday 30th November.

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Karen Watkins
Founder at Rowan Consulting
Many HR professional will be aware that in terms of the law, there is no automatic legal right to be paid for missed working time due to bad weather or travel disruptions, however employees have the right to take unpaid time off in an emergency situation that involves a dependent, so if schools are closed this will warrant a request for unpaid leave. What's interesting to also note is that if employees are ready and available to work but their place of work is closed, then they will usually be entitled to normal pay. It's important to remember, an employer’s duty of care includes health & safety, if employees are unable to get to work safely then you should allow them to work from home, if the last 18 months has taught us anything it's about the need for empathic leaders and flexibility of working, it's now more about the how and not the where.