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A. Payments in these circumstances depends on the situation.
If your client decides to close the office or send employees home early, the employees would be entitled to full pay for any hours they would have worked had the workplace been open for them to work.
However, if your client has an ‘unpaid lay off’ or ‘short time working’ clause they would not need to provide full payment, and in some cases the employer need not provide any payment at all, so always check the contract.
If the office stays open and it’s the employee who is unable to get to work, your client would not need to pay them. This may seem a little harsh because their absence isn’t their fault; a fallen tree may be blocking their road, or floods may mean that driving is not safe.
This also applies to those who make it to work but arrive late, you do not need to pay for the time that they were not in work (unless a specific contractual provision says that they will be paid).
Your client may be able to enforce paid annual leave, however, they would need to give affected employees notice. The minimum notice employers can give is ‘double’ for example 2 days’ notice must be given for 1 day’s holiday.
Due to the requirement of ‘notice’ in cases of enforced annual leave, it generally isn’t used for unexpected absences because employers may not be able to provide employees the relevant notice.
Enforced annual leave isn’t the only annual leave option, if both parties agree to use annual leave, they can, otherwise you could see if the employee was owed any time off in lieu, or any flexi time which they could take to cover their absence and still be paid.
There is another option and that is to simply pay the employees, however if your client decides to do so, they could create a precedent that becomes an implied contractual term and ending the practice could be unlawful.
Perhaps the absences could be avoided altogether. Your client could notify the employees of the expected bad weather and that they should bear this in mind when travelling into work, and consider asking them to take home necessary equipment (where practical to do so) in order to work from home.
If the building has to close, employers might be able to send employees to another branch or an alternative location.
This can be identified in relevant policies such as a ‘mobility clause’. If no clause to allow this exists, your client would still be able to ask the employees to work elsewhere but your client would need to seek agreement each time.
It’s important to remember that employers have a ‘duty of care’ for the health and safety of all employees. If the government issues a weather warning and directs people not to travel by car or public transport except for emergencies, employers should assess the risk of not taking heed.
