Hi Sharon ... this is an old thread but still our 'go to' discussion covering 'snow' and absence. I haven't yet read through to see whether anyone posted in a school context, so further discussion more than welcome :)

Unless you have some very clear contractual authority I would suggest you pay them as normal. And even if you do I suggest you pay them.

Its not their fault you decided to close the school.

Teaching staff will be paid.

Closing schools - what a crazy idea. School is workplace and should be open. All other workplace are open and carry on as normal. It is not like the end of the world!

In reply to Artur Kidacki:

It's not as simple as that though, is it Artur Kidacki? If a critical mass of staff cannot get to school safely (particularly in rural areas), you cannot open.

In this particular instance where the employer has decided to close the place of work, I can see no alternative to paying people 100% - the employer has unilaterally decided not to provide a working opportunity and has pre-empted the situation.

In other circumstances, where a company stays open and expects staff to make their best endeavours to come to work, the guidance outlines in the first post in the thread mentioned by Steve seems to me to be full of common sense and fairness.

Whilst I agree that people don't choose to be stuck at home due to inclement weather, I don't think the weather is the fault of the company either. Common sense interpretation of mutual contractual obligations to provide and undertake work must for me be the byword

In reply to Steve Bridger:

In the absence of any contractual unpaid layoff clauses, if the it's the school that decides to close, even if a support staff member lived next door, they'd be available for work but the employer unable to provide them with work, so legally / contractually have to be paid.

Same thing applies, wherever the staff live: the employer can't just assume that someone will find it impossible to get through ice or snow or whatever to get to work - employee might be an alpine mountaineer or keep a 4wd or even a tractor for all the employer knows!

And the school loses no funding when they decide to close as a result of bad weather, so why should they make any of the staff lose pay - especially low paid support staff?

In our area, it does seem bizarre that a few head teachers seem to close their (mainly rural / village ) schools as a matter of course as soon as they see or hear of even a few desultory snowflakes falling to earth, whilst others won't until conditions get really bad or almost certainly will. But they would say that they've a duty of care to their children and it's best not to needlessly put them at risk in potentially treacherous conditions. And if a lot of the staff fail to make it into school, the children won't benefit educationally from coming in anyhow,

(crossed with Ray's response)

In reply to Steve Bridger:

I live in a small rural town in Scotland where when they say "there'll be snow on high ground" they mean us!

I believe that in our council area, if teachers and other staff can't get to their normal school in snowy weather (and sometimes all roads out of our town are blocked either by snow, or stranded vehicles), then they go to the school nearest to where they live and work there for the day.

That being said though, sometimes there are simply not enough staff for classes to be covered safely and effectively - it usually ends up being a wasted day educationally for the kids, and they'd rather be out sledging or building snowmen anyway!

I agree on the original post that support staff should be paid, even if it isn't necessarily in their contract.

Ishbel

Have others followed this same approach with hourly paid casual workers please? Our current assignment agreements state that the only reason that payment will be made due to inability to work is sickness and that contractual position is currently being enforced; I would very much like to know what other colleges have done in this situation.