In light of the recent record-breaking snow falls last month, we take this opportunity to revisit legal risks and best practices around snow days, employee attendance and workplace safety.
Concerns & Considerations
Employee’s Right to Refuse Unsafe Work: Extreme weather can make commuting dangerous and an employee may refuse to go to work because they don’t feel safe driving in the winter conditions. This may trigger an obligation under occupational health and safety legislation for refusal to perform unsafe work, and this can include travel to the workplace.
What that means is that employers across affected provinces should think carefully before insisting on in-person attendance during a storm, particularly where public advisories are warning about dangerous travel and urging residents to stay put.
Human Rights & Family Obligations: Weather-related school and daycare closures may trigger family-status accommodation obligations. Engage in good-faith discussions and explore reasonable accommodations where possible.
Maintain Safe Worksites: Review practices and meet occupational health and safety obligations, by ensuring entrances, walkways and parking areas and cleared and safe for employees. Recognize that slips and falls related to snow and ice may be considered workplace injuries.
Employer Takeaways
Proactive planning and clear policy language about when employers can schedule vacation and how storm-related closure will be treated is crucial to reduce uncertainty for both managers and staff. We recommend the following proactive steps and policy elements:
- Identify roles that can be performed remotely during severe weather — even if remote work is not normally permitted.
- Define and clarify what happens to pay, vacation time or personal days when weather affects attendance. Generally, there is no automatic obligation to pay employes for time not worked due to weather and you may provide your employees with the choice to utilize accrued vacation time, or treat the day as unpaid.
- Communicate expectations clearly and proactively: who should work remotely, who is excused, and how to report availability.
- Consider implementing a policy that provides structure, without being overly rigid, which sets out core principles – such as prioritizing safety, complying with local employment standards and human rights law, and using remote work where possible. Be sure to apply policies consistently to avoid disputes.
- Provide support and guidance to local leaders on how to respond to specific conditions in their region.
- Where weather conditions do not trigger the statutory “unsafe work” process, such refusals to attend at work may become an issue of insubordination. However, and especially in the absence of clear policies, employers should generally avoid discipline based solely on weather-related absences.
If you have any questions about the recommendations above or any specific situations in your workplace, please do not hesitate to reach out to speak with an e2r® Advisor.