How bad the snow and ice must be for workers to have the right to stay at home

Your boss may not have to pay you for time you take off because of bad weather

Ice and snow have caused major disruption to roads, railways and airports across the UK this winter as temperatures have plummeted well below freezing.

More than 1,000 schools were closed in December and thousands of people struggled to get to work, reinforcing the UK’s reputation for being unprepared for even relatively mild winter weather.

So what rights do you have when weather makes it difficult to get to work?

Do I still get paid if I can’t get to work?

This depends on the type of employment contract you have. If your contract of employment and employee handbook don’t say anything about this issue, then your employer has no legal obligation to pay you for time that you are not at work due to bad weather.

However, if there is a provision in either of those documents stating that employees who are late or do not attend work in these circumstances will be paid, then your employer must honour that clause. If they don’t, you may be able to bring a claim against them for breach of contract and/or unlawful deduction of wages.

Even if there is no specific clause in your contract, there may be what is known as an implied term that has been created through custom or practice. If your employer has paid you before when you have been unable to get to work because of bad weather, a court could decide that they have to pay when other similar circumstances arise.

Can my boss make me come in when the weather is bad?

Your employer cannot force you to make a journey that’s unsafe, so use common sense to judge whether that really is the case.

What if my child’s school is closed and I need to care for them?

The law grants parents the right to “time off for dependants”, meaning that if your child’s school is shut because of bad weather, you are entitled to unpaid time off. There is no official limit to the amount of time you may take, but it must be “reasonable” in the circumstances. A tribunal will decide what constitutes reasonable. Your employer could also allow you to make up the time missed or to work from home so that you don’t see your pay reduced.

Can my boss make me use annual leave to cover days off for bad weather?

Employers can tell employees when to take annual leave, but they must give them twice as much notice as the amount of time they require them to take. This makes it impractical to do so in periods of bad weather. For example, your boss would have to inform you on Monday morning that it is definitely going to snow on Wednesday and that you have to take annual leave. The reality is, such a scenario is highly unlikely to occur.

Can I go home if the office is too cold?

There is no law outlining the maximum or minimum temperatures that an office environment should exceed, but the Health and Safety Executive states that employers are legally obliged to provide a “reasonable” temperature in the workplace, under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.

Under its Approved Code of Practice, a workplace should be at least 16C or at least 13C if a person’s work involves rigorous physical effort.

My workplace is closed because of the weather. Do I have to take the day as holiday?

No. Your boss can’t dock your pay or make you take annual leave if they have closed the office and you can’t work from home.

My employer says I have to work from home. Do I?

If you can work from home, or do some of your work from home, then it’s reasonable for your employer to ask you to do so if you can’t make it into the office. Matt Gingell, a partner at Gannons law firm, urged bosses to be flexible and allow home working when weather makes it difficult to get to work.

“If employees are going to be spending hours struggling on public transport to get to work surely it’s better they spend the time working where they can,” he said.