22/04/2010 - Firms' options after flight fallout
With some workers taking an unexpected longer vacation after flights were grounded by the volcanic ash cloud, employers are likely to start assessing the financial implications.
Martha Arnold, an associate at Fox Williams, says businesses and employees alike may look to litigation in order to recoup damages.
With the situation likely to be unprecedented for many businesses, bosses may be questioning whether they have to pay staff who are stranded abroad.
Unless it is in writing, employees are not entitled to be paid when they are not able to carry out their work duties.
Without a contract, businesses will have to consider how similar situations have been dealt with previously.
Employees also have a duty of responsibility to keep their bosses up-to-date about when they expect to return to work and seek to come to an agreement on how the added time off will be treated.
If contracts do not include a clause on how to deal with the issue, employers have several options, including: treating the time as unpaid leave; settling that the leave can be taken as further annual holiday, or agreeing that the time must be made up over a set period, but it will not be deducted from salaries.
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