A railway line

Railway workers are going on strike again this week, with only 20% of services expected to run across the country on Wednesday 27th July and a further strike planned on Saturday 30th July.

All train operators will be affected to some degree by Wednesday’s railway strike, with some areas of the country seeing no train service at all. The public have been advised to seek alternate travel arrangements and only try to travel by train if necessary.

What about employees who can’t get into work?

For those who rely on the train and will be unlikely or unable to get to work because of the strike, employers should speak to these employees and discuss what alternative arrangements can be made for them.

Possible solutions that could allow an employee to still be paid in this circumstance:

  • If an employee can do their job from home, they can work from home on the day of the strike
  • For those who are hybrid workers, they should change their days at home to be on the planned strike days
  • Agree to book the day(s) they can’t get in to work off as annual leave
  • If your organisation allows staff to ‘bank’ time off in exchange for overtime, employees could use any time banked on the strike day(s)

Options that an employer can take to allow an employee to still be paid in this circumstance:

  • Set up a temporary period of flexible working to start or finish outside of regular working hours
  • Enforce annual leave – this can only be done with twice the length of the annual leave to be enforced, e.g., 2 day’s notice to enforce 1 day of annual leave

What about employees who are late to work due to the strikes?

For employees who opt to commute by train or use a different transportation method than usual on the day of the strikes and are late to work, employers have a choice on how to handle this matter.

‘Rounding up’ pay for lateness

Some employers choose to ‘round up’ pay when employees are late. For example, employees are only paid by the half hour, so an employee that is 10 minutes late for a shift stating at 2pm will not get paid until 2.30pm.

This policy can negatively impact morale, especially where the lateness is due to strikes. Additionally, it may also be an unlawful deduction of wages, as an employees pay won’t reflect the hours they’ve worked. Finally, an employee that is paid around the national minimum wage rate would likely see their pay to dip below minimum wage rate and put you in breach of the law.

Working back time lost due to lateness

Employers may opt to agree with their employees that, if they are late to work due to the strike action, they can opt to make up the time, either later on the same day that they’re late, or at a later late.

Exceptional circumstances

As an employer, you may decide to treat lateness due to the railway strike differently to other forms of lateness. If you choose to do this, you must ensure that it is done so consistently across your workforce to ensure fairness. Making this decision may also set expectations that this will be the case in the case of future strikes or severe transport disruption.

By discussing the strikes in advance with any employees likely to be affected and putting in place a consistent approach to any lateness/disruption caused as a result of the strikes, you can minimise confusion or panic among employees and minimise the impact of the strike on your businesses operations.

Further train disruption is expected to take place next month, with railway strikes planned on Thursday 18th August and Saturday 20th August.

Find out more about the railway strikes and expected disruption here.

Get in touch with My HR Hub