Share

Volcanic Disturbances in the Workplace

Another volcanic ash cloud has been causing disruption across the country once again this week, leading to travel chaos across Scotland and elsewhere.

The aftermath of last year’s volcanic eruption in Iceland was a headache for many businesses. It cost airlines around £600 million in lost business and compensation payouts and many other businesses faced unexpected absences in the workplace with employees stranded on holiday, business trips and offshore.

The blanket ban of flights also led to many pre-booked holidays being cancelled therefore employees wanted to defer their holiday entitlement, which caused an additional headache for managers.

As Scottish airspace begins to be affected by this fresh ash cloud from Iceland, leading Scottish HR and health & safety firm, Empire, is urging North-east businesses to be fully prepared to deal with issues in the workplace resulting from the disruption.

Empire Operations Director, Peter-Jon Chalmers, has some advice on how to deal with the crisis if it begins to affect Scottish businesses: “In situations like this, most of the questions that arise in the workplace are related to pay and allocation of annual leave. One of the main issues last year was the uncertainty of how long employees would be stranded abroad and inevitably this could have a serious impact on a business. The new ash cloud has already started disrupting travel arrangements and this is the time that employers should be preparing themselves for any ensuing staff issues in the workplace.”

Do I need to pay someone who is unable to come back to work following their holiday because they are stuck abroad?

In general, no. Unless their contract states otherwise, there is no obligation to pay them anything as it would be a period of unpaid leave. However, you may wish to consider the length of absence and the financial impact this will have on the employee. Some businesses may be in a position to be able to pay them for a few days. In this case, the payments should be made to all employees within the company in this situation.

I know that my employee will struggle financially if I don’t pay them. How can I ease the impact with minimal financial risk to the business?

There are a number of options available. You could offer your employees the opportunity to take annual leave to cover their extended absence. This will ensure that they are paid as normal. However, if they are stuck abroad for a long period of time this will obviously have implications in terms of the amount of annual leave they can take later in the year so it is important to discuss this with the employee.

If the absence is very short you could agree that they will make up the hours at a later date – perhaps an extra hour a day for a month. However, this would obviously need to suit the needs of the business.

I would prefer my employees to take the time off as annual leave but they don’t want to. Can I force them to?

Under the Working Time Regulations, employers must give twice as much notice to an employee as the number of days they require the employee to take as leave. As an example, if the employer requires the employee to take 2 days holiday, they must give 4 day’s advance notice. Therefore, it would be inappropriate in most circumstances. However, if your employee is going to be absent for a long period of time you could give them notice of the requirement that they take annual leave over the phone provided that you give them the correct amount of notice.

One of my employees had a holiday booked for this week. They have been unable to go due to their flight being cancelled. Do I have to let them cancel their annual leave booking so that they can take the holiday later in the year?

No, there is no obligation to allow them to do so. If you are able to take them back and have work for them to do, it would be considerate to let them come back to work and take the holidays later in the year. However, if you have arranged temporary cover for their absence which means you would be paying two people to do one job, it is fine to stick to the original holiday dates.

My employees have not been calling me on a daily basis to update me on the situation. Do they need to?

They should communicate with you as per the company absence reporting procedure. However, it may be unrealistic to expect them to call you on a daily basis if they are abroad. Therefore, when they do get in contact it would be a good idea to come to an agreement about how often they should contact you. Perhaps every other day would be suitable? You could stipulate that they must call you as soon as they know which flight they will be on so that you can plan your staffing requirements accordingly.

One of my employees is stuck abroad due to being on a business trip. How should I deal with this?

In this case, they should be paid as normal. Although very unfortunate, they were sent abroad on company business so this should be treated differently to those who are delayed whilst on holiday.

If someone is stuck abroad due to a business trip and they have access to a laptop and/or office, you could consider emailing them work to do.

177 views