Now that everyone has stopped talking about the snow (it was lovely, but then, I didn’t need to go anywhere!), the next talking point at work is whether people are going to get paid for their “snow day”.
The first place to look is your handbook, in your severe weather policy (you do have one, don’t you?). This usually gives the options for payment on a day where staff can’t get in to work.
To be honest, if staff can’t get in, but the office/golf club is still open, it is a relatively easy situation.
If you don’t work, you don’t get paid, unless you take a holiday day.
But if the office/club is closed, independent of whether any staff could get in, then it’s a bit trickier.
Here are your options:
Option 1 (the fairest)
Pay all hourly paid / zero hours staff for the shifts they were rota’d to work on the snow days.
Pay all full time staff their normal salary.
Option 2
Don’t pay hourly paid/zero hours staff for those days.
Deduct pay from full time staff salaries for the time you were closed.
Offer both groups the chance to use annual holiday so that they are paid for those days.
You can’t pay the full time staff and not the part time staff. That would be discriminatory – they must be treated the same. (Oh, and zero hours staff are classed as “part time”.)
Be aware that whatever you decide to do could create a precedent, so that the next time you are closed, you would need to follow the same approach.
But if it is a snow day, that might not be for another few years…
Happy snowballing!
