Christine: So, if we move on then, Seamus, to adverse weather. It's very timely. It's 1 December. It's absolutely freezing. There's ice everywhere. There are no buses, trains, or anything else. So, it's very timely. It's almost like we had our crystal balls out. So, what should people be looking out for in these types of weather conditions for their employees?

Seamus:  Well, we're certainly hitting that time of the year. I think the past three mornings I've had to sit in the car for a few minutes and let the windscreen defrost and everything else before I can get moving. So, we are coming up to that time of year. We're running into January. That and February time are our traditional sort of bad months in relation to weather.

 We talked about in the poll in relation to temperatures, and I think that we've covered off on that. The other thing that struck me about temperatures in the office is that you do need to be careful around the profile of your employees, anybody with disabilities, and any older employees. Your older employees may not feel as safe leaving the house if there is ice on the footpaths and on the roads.

And internally, just with your employees that may suffer from any disabilities like arthritis, and diabetes, any other conditions that are sort of aggravated by cold temperatures, there may be specific steps that you need to take or adjustments that you might need to make in relation to them.

Interestingly, I did read about a bad weather policy and procedure that some offices and some work places have, and I thought, "God, that's a bit extreme to have a bad weather policy". But when I looked at the policy and looked at the practicalities of it, I can absolutely see the sense of it. It might be that it's only something that is used for part of the year.

We've talked about the very high temperatures in the summer that we've experienced over the past couple of years as well. I think at one point they were hitting in June, two years ago, sort of 41, 43 in London. So, it's that sort of extreme weather on both sides of it and problems that it can create.

So, just wanted to cover off on a couple of general things. From the employee's perspective, you're in a contract. You must go to work unless you're sick or you're on leave, so it's your responsibility to get to work. It's not the employer's responsibility to facilitate or to say, "The weather's too bad. Don't come in today". You're in a contractual position. You're filling your contractual obligations by attending work.

Now, taking this all with the basis that most people are either working from home full-time or doing hybrid working where they're coming in and out of the office on certain days, and other people that are full back into the office and not looking back on it. So, covering this in all the eventualities, but it is ultimately the responsibility of the employee.

In addition to that, then, you may get employers that will say, "Look, if there's snow, we will facilitate. We will get you to work in order to ensure that the business is still going".

But I think employees can say that they shouldn't be risking their health and safety in order to get to work. You need to be clear that there's no legal right for payment if they don't attend work, unless it's in your contract. So, unless there's something in the contract that says that there are those occasions of extreme weather that if you can't attend work, you get paid.

Also, then, for the employer, it's really looking at what are the alternatives during these periods. And yes, working from home. So, you may be asked to work from home. You could ask an employee to take annual leave or to make the time up later on, if that's a possibility, if they can't get to work.

And today is a good day in the sense for us because we have a day of bad weather here where it is very cold. I think there was an ice warning this morning until 10:00 a.m., and that's the first of the year. They said on the radio that this was the coldest morning since back in March. So, we are hitting that time of year again.

In addition to that, then, we have no buses. We have no public transport today for people to get in and out of work. This has been a concern for a number of our employees in the office here. Some of them had said, "I'm going to work from home", some of them have booked annual leave, and some have said, "It's going to take me longer to get into work because there's no bus, and can I leave early because my partner is driving past at half four rather than five today?" So, there's all that flexibility that you normally build in, and you take a sensible and a reasonable approach.

I know that we feel like we're going through a period of a lot of strikes and a lot of those sorts of circumstances arising. But in general, they're one-offs that tend to happen and that you can accommodate and that you can facilitate.

The other thing around that was if an employee rings and says, "Look, I can't get to work. I'm stuck at home. What's going to happen in relation to pay and salary?" Again, the straightforward, flat position is that employers have no obligation generally to compensate for employees who can't get to work. Unless you attend and unless you do the work, you don't get paid.

So, it will be about having those conversations and having them in advance. We've known for a while that weather coming up was going to be bad from last week. They've been telling us that. And also, in addition to that, we have known about the strikes and things. So, it's important to get that conversation started early and to keep the communication open, and facilitate essentially where you can.

It's not that different really to those employees during COVID that had become unwell or didn't want to come into the office because they had somebody at home that was unwell with COVID, and those sorts of precautionary steps that were taken. I think it does require that flexibility.

Look, we can talk about working from home all the time, but there are some businesses and some industries there that you just can't. You have to be in the workplace. So, it is just about trying to forecast that and trying to see it.

I suppose the other interesting aspect is that we have school closure days that are happening as well. I think we had one of those this week, maybe a half-day closure or something like that. And these are things that are reoccurring. We're seeing more of them.

Then coupled with the whole transport issue today, and if we get a very bad state of bad weather, you will have parents that cannot attend work because they have to care for their children. And there needs to be the flexibility in and around looking after that.

We know that you can make certain applications throughout your employment in relation for parental leave and things like that. But what we're talking about here are really the sort of emergency situations that are arising and how we deal with those.

But that struck my mind as well this week with a lot of the school closures that have been happening recently. Where does that leave parents in relation to their ability to care for their child? If they're normally in school, is mom or dad having to take the day off or share a day off in order to make sure that that's accommodated?

Are employers at the position where they're saying, "Yeah, you can work from home that day, but you're going to have your children there. And realistically, what sort of work are you going to get done?" Things have moved on from that, I think, from where we were at COVID. And I think that there is an expectation from employers that if you're working from home, that you are working.

But it does give up flexibility that you could possibly say, "Well, look, I'm not going to be able to work on the morning part, but I will work in the afternoon and I do have a couple of extra hours in the evening, or I'd pick it up over the weekend in order to make sure that the time of the work is covered".

Christine:  Yeah. Seamus, I actually saw an article covered by the CIPD that was saying that adverse weather conditions are going to be one of the top concerns for HR going forward just due to storms, flooding, very warm temperatures, very cool temperatures. So, in my view, it really is worth having a policy on weather just so you have listed all the different scenarios and what the business would be comfortable doing to accommodate in those scenarios.

When I saw the headline, I was like, "Really?" But when you read into it, we are starting to see more of it. So, it's probably a good thing to start thinking about rather than it kind of surprising you, really.

So, my takeaways really from our winter section or adverse weather, I would get a policy in place. How are you going to handle things like people not getting to work? Will you pay them? Will you not? How are you going to communicate if the office has been closed due to the adverse weather? Have a think about it now how you're going to handle things and get a policy in place.

Secondly, with your temperatures in the workplace in particular, be aware of more vulnerable employees and take necessary action to give them the extra protection that they'll need if it gets very cold.