Last week was the first of potentially many where travel disruption caused by rail strikes could affect the ability of your staff to get to the office on time, or at all. Below are some of the questions you may need to address within your business over the coming weeks:
My worker cant get into work at all – what should I do?
Communication is key and you will need to speak with your employee about their situation and whether there is an alternative way for them to get to work. If not you may wish to consider some options:
- Can your employee work from home? If so then this should be encouraged during the strike days and also potentially on the other disrupted days this week
- If they cannot work from home you may wish to seek their agreement to use some of the holiday allowance. You can require employees to use holiday but only if you provide notice which is twice as long as the period of holiday i.e. 2 days notice is required to compel them to take 1 days holiday
- Is their role one which can be flexed to a different day where they can then make up their hours? For example could they work longer on non-strike days or could they undertake their hours on days which would normally be non-working days such as weekends?
- If no alternatives can be found the employee may need to take unpaid leave if they cannot attend work.
When considering which options, there is no absolute requirement to treat all staff the same as their personal circumstances will all be different. However it is important that you treat everyone fairly as ultimately the strike is not their fault and you do not wish to alienate your staff going forward.
It is important to remember also that there are various threats to continue with strikes for the rest of the year. Anything you agree with your staff may need to be revisited multiple times over the year and it may be worth considering, for example, whether if an employee cannot work from home there is something which can be done to allow them to work from home should there be further strikes?
My worker is going to be late – how do I avoid disruption to my business?
As with absences the best course of action is to take time talking with your staff about what impact the strikes are likely to have. If home working is not an option could you agree a flexi-time working arrangement such that they can arrive early and leave early or arrive later and leave later than their normal working hours? It could be that if they are late on one day could they catch up their hours on another day or use holiday for those hours that they are late?
If it is possible flexibility is going to be key here. Again it is ultimately not the employee’s fault if they are late because of travel disruption and you do not wish to fall out with them for something they cannot control or affect.
Can I close my business for the day?
As the business owner you can look to take this step however it is quite drastic and unless you have a ‘lay-off’ clause in your contract you may still be required to pay the staff who are willing and able to attend work their full salary. You will need to weigh up whether you save enough money on other costs by closing to make this option financially prudent or whether you are better off running as close to a normal operation as you can with the staff you have available to you.
How long is this likely to go on for?
Ultimately we don’t know. The RMT and other trade unions have indicated that they are likely to continue with regular strike action throughout the course of this year. The RMT claims a mandate for strike action for the next 6 months.
As set out above it is important therefore that you try and take sensible steps to mitigate this risk to your business should the strike action continue. Any arrangements you make with staff will need to be revisited regularly and staff need to understand that as disruptive as this strike action is it remains their obligation to attend for work. As such if there are alternative but less convenient options then these should be taken.
If you are experiencing difficulties with your staff as a result of the strike action please call our Gary Smith on 01279 712576 or via email gsmith@nockolds.co.uk for more information.