Pay Deduction for Bad Weather

moredough

madammim wrote: »

my husband works permanant night shifts about 15 miles from home. only one person (of about 15) on his shift took Monday night off using snow as the excuse, yesterday one of his female colleagues who has a longer journey to work asked to take holiday for a night as she wasnt confident about the driving but was told there was too much work so was refused it. This morning my husband had a message from his work that the factory will be shut tonight so dont come in, a management decision will be made about how people can make up the time. We dont think this is fair because he is available and willing to work tonight and was happy to drive and expecting to be there. Can they expect him to make up the time when its not his choice not to go in?

I would say, if he is available and willing to work then he should be paid. I had this probem with my employers in summer last year, I work for a small company and both the bosses holidays overlapped by a week, so they decided to close down for a week at short notice. They tried getting me to take the week off using my holiday entitlement. I told them where to go. They eventually gave in.

Recently with the snow, I was an hour late as my house is at the bottom of a small hill and I couldn't get the car up the hill, I had to go home for a shovel, clear the hill and grit it. Luckily there was grit in the bin. there hasn't been in the past. I wouldn't expect to be paid for that hour and asked them to take it from my overtime. Although my boss had a right ding dong about me being late and said I should park my car away from my house within 1/2 mile so I don't get snowed in. Is he right to ask me to do that. I wonder what the position would be with my insurers if someone slid into my car when it wasn't on my drive overnight like i said it would be when i took out the policy,

ohreally

http://www.tuc.org.uk/law/tuc-15932-f0.cfm

Modette_2

I have double checked my contract and there is nothing in there about any sort of pay deductions for not being able to attend work whether it is due to bad weather or for some other reasons. I am salaried therefore, they should not be entitled to just deduct me any pay. Besides, there are other employees within the company who have been paid for having "duvet days". If I cannot attend work due to the weather, then I should be entitled to have my full pay. It is not as though I did not make the effort to come in to work, I got a third of the way here (which is 5 miles), I cannot walk the other 10 miles to get to work. I also had 2 near miss accidents in the 2 days that I tried to get in. Also this morning, I nearly skidded off the road (a side road that has never been gritted in its whole existence even though it is a bus route) there must be some people out there who cannot even get the car off their drives??? I dont think that it is fair or indeed good management conduct to deduct people any pay for not being able to get in to work. If a person travels by public transport and the buses/trains get cancelled, are they expected to walk in to work even if they live 15 miles away like me? By the way - I still have not heard from my Manager what the decision is about last week.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

I would say if you're a hour or so late and dont take the !!!! then its not a problem..

If you dont / cant go in at all then i think its only fair that its holiday.. Fortunately I havent had to make that call, as anyone who hasnt made it to work recently has straight out said "i will take holiday" before it was an issue.

Across the entire team I part of (about 100 or so) the only people any of the managers have had issues with are the shirkers who wanted a quick excuse to dive out of responcibilty!

(not suggesting any of the above people are, just personal experiance in my workplace!)

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

oh, and the place i work at very much looks out for its employees, that just dont expect people to take advantage..

Everyday we had bad snow / ice (3 times last week) everyone who had made it in got sent home early to avoid tackling it in the dark.

soolin

BBC news just said that London Underground have said they will not be paying staff who did not turn up for work last week due to bad weather.

Locally though 80% of bus drivers turned up for work as normal but weren't allowed to take their buses out due to TFL rules, so they had to sit in the bus garage all day until they were allowed to leave.

glossgal

OP what if your child took ill suddenly... or your pet needed to be taken to the vet as an emergency case? Would you still expect to be paid in full for not coming to work and not have to use them as holidays? Neither scenario would be 'your fault'...I don't see the difference.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

glossgal wrote: »

OP what if your child took ill suddenly... or your pet needed to be taken to the vet as an emergency case? Would you still expect to be paid in full for not coming to work and not have to use them as holidays? Neither scenario would be 'your fault'...I don't see the difference.

You wouldnt believe how many people DO expect to be paid if their child is ill!

I had someone sulk and shout saying that next time they would simply call in sick themselves instead of being straight with the company! (she doesnt work here anymore)

JF77

Interesting thread! I did not make it in last Monday due to the weather. I then failed to turn up on Thursday night as my husband got stuck in a meeting at work and I could not leave my 5 year old (family help is 2 hours drive away!)

Today, my wee one has a tummy bug and I had to call in again! I feel terrible about these incidents and I have been very reliable during my 4 years in this job.

I can honestly say that I never expected to get paid for any of these non work days. I am only part time paid hourly and, I am just grateful to my employer for being understanding.

ohreally

I've dug out my employers policy on adverse conditions...

"Any member of staff who is genuinely prevented from attending their base because of extreme weather conditions, will not be penalised financially and therefore will be paid."