In light of last month’s flooding across Northern Ireland, and the fact that December often brings more extreme weather conditions, it is important to consider what may happen when weather conditions make it difficult for employees to travel to work.

Employees:

• must go to work unless they’re sick or on leave and it's their responsibility to get to work;
• they shouldn't risk their safety to get to work;
• have no legal right to be paid if they don't go into work, unless it's in their contract;
• should check if their employer has a "bad weather" policy which covers what is expected of them;
• have the right to unpaid time off to deal with emergency situations about their dependants.

The right to unpaid time off doesn't normally apply to a school closure as it's not the same as a disruption to childcare. However, an unexpected school closure could be seen as an emergency situation, and they would be entitled to taking a reasonable amount of time off to make alternative arrangements for care of their dependants.

A reasonable amount of time off would probably be the rest of that day at the most. This time off is normally unpaid but not all employers would take this approach.

As an employer you:

• may ask employees to work from home where applicable, take annual leave or make up time later to ensure work missed in this time is accounted for;
• can't force employees to take a day’s holiday without their consent or without giving proper notice unless their contract gives you the right to direct when a holiday is taken; and
• can't usually withhold pay if the business is temporarily closed at short notice because of the weather and employees can't work as a result.

If you do unreasonably withhold pay, employees could bring unauthorised deduction from wages claims to recover the pay owed. If there is a ‘temporary layoff’ clause in an employee’s contract of employment which allows you to temporarily lay off employees without pay (other than legal guarantee pay), or it is custom and practice for your business to operate on this basis, then it may be allowed for you to close the business at short notice.

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