It may be a little early in the school holidays but something to give some thought to if you are a school or academy. 

It may be a little early in the school holidays but something to give some thought to if you are a school or academy. 

You will no doubt be aware of the news reports relating to the attempts of thousands of migrants attempting to gain entry illegally into Britain via the Channel Tunnel. One of the resulting problems has involved the huge traffic congestion in the south of England, delaying travellers significantly. So what is your response when staff phone in to say they are stuck down south or even in northern France and can’t get back to work?

Not an easy one to resolve but maybe the principles of actions related to staff who can’t get to work because of adverse weather conditions should be applied. It is a matter for the Governing Body to consider but the principles are going to be fairly similar. However, the numbers of staff are unlikely to be as high as if suddenly six inches of snow has dropped suddenly. Therefore closing schools is probably not going to be an issue.

If stuck in traffic it’s not going to be as easy as saying “do some work from home” so the key issue is going to be, do you allow staff a paid or unpaid leave of absence.

Option 1           Allow paid leave (if only for a specified period). After all, it is something out of the control of staff – unless it can be demonstrated that they could reasonably have found alternative methods of travel/routes. Governors and Head Teachers might feel it is unfair to penalise staff by not paying when the employees have no options.

Option 2         Grant unpaid leave. You might argue that the circumstances are unfortunate but at the end of the day, schools and academies must remain open and children taught. Staff are paid to attend work – the events are also not the fault of the school so why should the school suffer a financial burden?

Whichever way you go, you need to be consistent and it is advisable to build something into your

Leave of Absence policy as a matter of urgency.