Volcanic Absences

Release date: 17/3/2010

Companies are noticing empty desks all over the country as they wait for stranded employees to be able to return from their Easter holidays.

Today it has been confirmed that British airspace will remain closed until at least 7pm tonight with Ryanair cancelling all flights until Wednesday.

The question is, how do you deal with these absences that are already costing you as a business?

Technically the absence is unauthorised but under the circumstances it would not be appropriate to commence disciplinary proceedings!

Our advice is that you do not have to pay your employees from the time that their booked annual leave came to an end. This should be treated as unpaid leave.

However, if an employee wishes to take additional annual leave in respect of this continued absence then, providing they have sufficient annual leave to cover this period, this is acceptable.