Do I have to pay my employees if my business is disrupted by fuel shortages?

With the recent fuel crisis causing shortages and travel disruptions across the UK, many employers may be wondering what their options are if employees cannot travel in to work, or if their business is affected. Our Employment Law team discusses your obligations and possible actions you could take if the fuel crisis disrupts your business.

How to act if your employees cannot attend work due to the fuel shortage

You are contractually obligated to pay your employees when they are ready, willing, and available to work their contracted hours. Therefore, if an employee cannot attend work or is late to work because of the fuel shortage you do not have to pay them for the missed hours, even though the reason for missing work was out of their control. However, as the past 18 months has shown us, employers can be flexible and there are a couple of options available to you if your employees have been affected by the shortage.

1. One option is to allow employees to work from home where feasible. With hybrid working models already in place in many businesses, allowing employees to work from home until the fuel shortage subsides is the course of action that may cause the least amount of disruption to your business. If your employees work from home, they should be paid their normal pay as if they had come into the office. 
2. If working from home is not an option, you could also allow your employees to take annual leave if they cannot make it into work. This option may be preferable to many employees who do not want forfeit a day of pay. If an employee does not want to take annual leave, or has already used up their entitlement for the year, you could also arrange for them to take a short period of paid leave now and make up the hours at a later date.

Care for dependants impacted by fuel shortage

The fuel crisis may also affect employees’ ability to care for their dependants if carers are unable to commute to their clients or if nurseries have to close due to a shortage of workers. Employees have the right to a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with such disruptions, and to make alternative arrangements. In most cases reasonable time off will be one or two days, and though there is no statutory right for this time off to be paid, some employers do opt to pay for this leave. You should check your Time off for Dependants policy to see what is standard at your business. 

If your business is affected by fuel shortage

If the fuel shortage has caused you to close your business, you will usually need to pay your employees their full wages as if they had worked their contractual hours. The exception to this is if you have a clause in your contract of employment allowing you to lay your employees off without pay. Without an unpaid lay-off clause, failing to pay your employees would constitute a breach of contract, and your employees could claim unlawful deduction of wages, or resign and claim constructive dismissal. Without the contractual right to lay-off your employees, your only other option would be to secure their agreement to be laid-off, which will be a hard sell for most employers.

If you anticipate that fuel shortages may cause a reduction in work in the coming days you may be able to require your employees to take annual leave to cover this period. You have the right to require employees to take annual leave at specific times, as long as you give them the necessary notice, which is twice the number of days as the leave you are requiring them to take. So, for example, if you would like your employees to take two days annual leave, you must give them four days’ notice.

If you have an adverse weather and travel disruption policy, it may be worth reviewing this policy for guidance in these circumstances. For assistance in drafting a travel disruption policy or to have your questions answered about lay-offs or annual leave, contact our Employment Law Team on 023 8071 7717 or email employment@warnergoodman.co.uk.

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ENDS

This is for information purposes only and is no substitute for, and should not be interpreted as, legal advice.  All content was correct at the time of publishing and we cannot be held responsible for any changes that may invalidate this article.