Chamber Board member Julie Pollock of ConsultHR has offered guidance to our members for managing staff ahead of red weather warning.

With severe red weather warnings announced for tomorrow, we’ve received several inquiries from employers seeking advice on how to manage their  workforce during this time.

For clarity ‘A red weather warning for wind means: 

  • Flying debris resulting in danger to life
  • Damage to buildings and homes, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down
  • Roads, bridges and railway lines closed, with delays and cancellations to bus, train, ferry services and flights
  • Power cuts affecting other services, such as mobile phone coverage
  • Large waves and beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and homes

A red weather warning means danger to life and therefore such a warnings should be taken seriously.’

Therefore we felt it would be useful to outline useful steps you may consider:-

General Communication to Staff

If you haven’t made a decision yet regarding work arrangements, we recommend sending a communication to all staff today to acknowledge you are aware of the weather warnings in place. Inform them that:

  • You are aware of the weather warnings announcement and you continue to closely monitor these announcements throughout the day, enforcing health and safety is the key priority in any decision making.
  • Any changes to their work arrangements over the next few days will be communicated to them as soon as possible.

Many other employers have already taken the decision to either close their premises or ask some employees not to perform their normal work activities due to the risk this will pose to them, therefore there are a number of options you may consider:-

  1. Use a Lay off Clause to cover the closure

A lay-off clause in an employment contract allows an employer to ask an employee not to come to work due to unforeseen circumstances.

The weather warning would be deemed to be unforeseen circumstances and therefore you could place your staff on lay off for the days you are intending to close.

A couple of things to note:-

  1. Review your employment contracts to check if you have a layoff clause.
  2. Employees placed on layoff are entitled to a statutory Guaranteed Payment, which is currently a maximum of £38 per day, for up to 5 days in a 3-month period.
  3. Layoff must be for a full day, and employees must be notified before their working day starts. Sending staff home mid-shift would require paying them for the full day.
  4. If enforcing the lay off clause – inform the staff in advance how this day will be treated and it will be a lay off in accordance to their contract of employment.
  1. Work from Home

Where it is feasible within your business, you should consider allowing employees to work from home to avoid travel risks. 

  1. Using Annual Leave or TOIL

If working from home is not possible and you do not have an expressed clause in your contract of employment which permits you to place staff on lay off, you may discuss alternative ways to treat the day such as:-

  1. The employee agrees to take a day’s holiday
  2. Use Time Off in Lieu (TOIL)  from their bank of built up hours or allow them to work the hours back at a later date.

You should be mindful, if agreement cannot be reached, and there is no layoff clause, the employee is legally entitled to full pay.

If you have questions or need further guidance, feel free to get in touch.

Stay safe.

Consult HR Team