Thursday 29th April 2010

Volcanic Ash Disruption

Back in January we commented on the disruption from the severe winter weather which was causing businesses grief across the country. Employers across the world have, and are now being faced with further challenges, volcanic ash.

This has clear similarities in the way that employers put contingency plans into action, and how these are managed. However, the volcanic ash presents problems on a bigger scale than say the swine flu epidemic or the severe weather which caused transport issues across the UK over winter. The ash is causing worldwide travel disruption and so employers may wish to consider being more lenient when employees cannot make it to the office because they are stranded abroad. The situation we find ourselves in is unprecedented and so consideration for this is advised.

Managing the reasons for employees being stranded

CIPD reports that businesses have thousands of staff stranded abroad and this may have happened under two circumstances:

1. Stranded on a Business Trip

Where your staff have been stranded after a business trip they may have facilities to work abroad, either on blackberry or in another office, where possible. If they are unable to work remotely then clearly this is not a holiday and should not be treated as such. There are of course duty of care issues live here and employers should be making every effort to return the member of staff back to the UK.

2. Stranded on Annual Leave/Holiday

Where an employee is stranded abroad following a personal trip / holiday then this throws up different issues. Employees may be able to work remotely if they have technology available to them, however if they are travelling with children this may be re-assessed.

There are options available to employers:

a. treat the ‘extended’ period away from the office as annual leave – however this needs to be discussed with the employee. If they have exhausted annual leave then they may wish to take this leave as Unpaid leave

b. Unpaid leave may be mutually agreed, and the employee may be given the opportunity to make time up at a later date.

What do we do if an employee does not make contact with the Company to inform of their absence from work?

In these circumstances it is difficult to expect the employee to comply with the Company’s notification of absence procedure, however where possible they should attempt to make contact to keep the Company informed of the situation. The Company can attempt to contact the employee to find out a likely date for return to work, or the Company may also contact the employee’s next of kin to clarify the situation.

Concluding remarks

There is always the risk of unlawful deductions from wages; therefore the recent travel disruption demonstrates the importance of having a contingency plan in place for such events. Of course, no one would have predicted the volcanic disruption, however contingency plans are useful to be able to make decisions in unforeseen circumstances. It is essential that whatever approach an organisation chooses to adopt they must apply this consistently to the workforce.