‘Don’t erupt over lost time’
Apr 21 2010
Employers shouldn't explode over lost time
Businesses are being advised to be flexible with staff stranded overseas.
While employers do not have to pay employees for time off due to the volcanic ash, some leeway should be given, says Anne Pritam, partner at law firm Stephenson Harwood. ‘An alternative solution is for the time to be taken as annual leave provided that this is agreed with employees in advance.
‘[But] if an employee is overseas on business rather than for personal reasons it would be unreasonable not to pay the employee or to require the employee to take holiday for the period of absence,’ she adds.
Chris Sinclair, director of computer software firm 3Si, has an employee stranded in America: ‘It’s really important to be flexible, our employee doesn’t want to lose more holidays or pay and we’ve been able to lessen the impact by using technology to set up a transient office,’ he says
Askar Sheibani, CEO of computer hardware provider Comtek, which has offices based across Europe, says: ‘The only effect it’s had has been through the cancellation of business meetings. We’ve used video conferencing instead, but have also had to reschedule meetings to next month.’
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