The EZHR guide to travel chaos.
What can employers do if an employee is stranded due to flight cancellations?
Flight cancellations can occur for a myriad of reasons – weather conditions, technical glitches, air traffic control restrictions, and those once-in-a-lifetime events.
While it’s a stressful experience for the passenger, it can also be a headache for employers when an employee can't make it back to work on time. Here’s a comprehensive guide for employers in the UK on how to handle such situations.
1. Stay Informed and Maintain Communication
Make sure that employees know they should inform their line manager or HR as soon as they’re aware of a delay. Quick communication can help in making alternative arrangements if necessary.
2. Plan Ahead
Try to avoid ambitious plans: If your employee is stuck, there are probably many others in the same boat. In the first instance, you need to consider how long it may take them to get back, sometimes it’s the next day and on some occasions it could take up to a week. Don’t be too ambitious in scheduling critical meetings or tasks the day immediately after their expected return.
3. Flexible Working Solutions
Remote Work: If they have their equipment, and their role allows, some people can work from anywhere. Consider allowing them to work from their current location until they can return and work with them to make sure you can offer work tasks with a different work schedule so it takes the pressure off.
4. Holiday Entitlements and Payments
Unpaid Leave: If the employee can't return to work due to reasons beyond their control (like flight cancellations), employers are not legally obliged to pay them for the missed days. But, look at ways they can leave, and some employers do pay to take the pressure off the employee in what is a time of high stress,
Alternatively, you may offer employees the chance to take the missed days as paid annual leave, but this is at the employer's discretion.
5. Taking Action
As part of Attendance Management: Some employers may try to treat this as an unauthorised absence. You need to consider the circumstances of the flight being cancelled and the likelihood of the person getting the next available flight. In major events, it's unlikely that it would be reasonable to take action, however for one-off situations where someone has cut it too close getting a flight you could consider this. However, make sure that you look at all of the detail
While it may feel like the horse has bolted but it’s worth putting into place a clear travel policy, this should outline the steps an employee should take in case of travel disruptions. It may include encouraging senior or critical employees to take their laptops for such an occasion.
While flight cancellations and travel disruptions are unpredictable, with a blend of empathy, flexibility, and proactive planning, employers can reduce the associated stress and disruptions. It’s crucial to approach these situations with a balance of understanding for the employee's plight and ensuring business continuity.
