Recent reports have stated that The Government may need to enforce temporary energy blackouts due to a shortage in the amount of energy available to the UK, this is most likely on cold nights in January and February 2023.

This is a worst-case scenario, and The Government has said we are in a good position due to measures the UK has taken to ensure there should be no blackouts. However, businesses should consider making contingency plans for how they will cope with both a power cut within their workplace and in households, if their staff work from home, to reassure staff and maintain business continuity.

So… what have they said?

Businesses and households would get “at least one day’s notice” in advance of the power cut and they would last for 3 hours, normally in the morning or more likely between 4pm and 7pm. They would be rotated so not all areas would be affected at the same time. Hospitals and “priority businesses” would be excluded.

How would this affect businesses?

The most difficult issue is likely to be the short notice that businesses will get of the disruption. Because of this, it would be advisable for employers to give some thought now to what they would do and make sure employees know about it so that those contingency plans can be rolled out at short notice.

Employers will need to consider whether any work can be done with no power, although this will depend on their industry and circumstances. This is more likely to be possible if blackouts are in the morning because darkness in the evening will make it difficult. 

What are the options to continue working when a blackout in planned?

Employers will need to make sure they have contingency plans in place for what their staff can do in the event of a blackout. 

• Can staff work with no power? Consider how a blackout in the dark winter afternoon impact their ability to work, compared to in the morning?
• If staff members live outside of the planned blackout zone, can they work from home that day?
• Can you send staff to a different site that is outside of the blackout zone?
• Seek agreement from staff to change their working hours the day of the blackout

What if staff cannot continue working?

If there are no alternative options for work to continue, and employers have a short-time clause, this can be used to send employees home without pay. Lay off would not be suitable in this situation because this requires a full 24 hours of no work. It is advisable for the short-time clause to expressly state that pay will be reduced. 

If there is no short-time clause in place and there are no alternative options for work to continue, employers can attempt to agree short-time working in advance with their employees. However, if no agreement can be obtained, the default position is to send employees home on full pay.

Alternatively, employers may seek to agree for employees to take annual leave (there may not be enough time to enforce annual leave) or paid leave or ask staff to make up lost time at a later date. 

Consider the knock-on effects on blackouts on your staff

Requests for emergency time off for dependants could increase, especially if nurseries and schools are closed. Employers might also have to ask some staff to return to work after the blackout to make sure everything is switched on and working properly (e.g. fridges, alarm systems etc).