EMPLOYEES THAT CANNOT MAKE IT INTO WORK BECAUSE OF TRAVEL DISRUPTION DO NOT HAVE TO BE PAID, UNLESS EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS SPECIFY OTHERWISE

It is believed that about 150,000 British residents have been stranded overseas because of the disruption of flights into and out of the UK airports.  As a result many employees have been unable to get back to work, which has left employers uncertain of their legal obligations around employees who cannot attend work due to matters beyond their control.

Employers are only obligated to pay employees for work they have done, unless the  employment contract or any workplace policies describe something different. For example if the contract states that employees will be paid if they are unable to attend work because of matters beyond their control (such as volcanic ash), then employees have a contractual right to be paid. Without this right, employers may choose instead to exercise their discretion and pay employees who cannot make it into work as a goodwill gesture.

Employers and employees may decide together whether to treat the time off as holiday leave or whether employees will make up the time lost by working extended hours in the following week, and so on.

Or it might be that the contract of employment and internal policies allow for flexibility in working away from the normal place of work. Other alternatives may be possible. For example, some employers have asked stranded staff to work at their overseas branch offices or even a friendly client’s office. Obviously, this will not be possible for all types of work.

The flight ban has other implications for employees who are foreign nationals subject to immigration control. The UK Border Agency issued an emergency announcement on 17 April to say that evidence of pre-booked travel is all they needed to avoid trouble for those that are ‘trapped inside’ the UK.  At the time of writing, there is no word on policy for those "trapped outside" with imminent expiry dates, and who need to re-enter for appointments to renew their status.

Thanks to CIPD for clarifying some of these points.

If you think that Denise could help you with this or any other Human Resource issues that you may have in your business then do contact Denise at DEMand Results on 01455 240 638 or mobile  07787 573 018. For further information about DEMand Results visit their feature on the bestof Hinckley.