Winter Storm Policy

Cathleen

It's that time of year here in the Northeast. We currently have a storm pay policy and a "Storm Information Line" that staff can call to find out if the office is closed due to inclement weather. The management would like to do away with the this hot line and simply let staff know that we are a national service organization and therefore will not be closing the office due to storms, however, no staff is required to work on storm days.

Does anyone have a similar policy or do you have any thoughts on putting this message out to staff?

sonny

Well our storm season is almost over, but a storm is a storm. .We are a muncipality, expected by our citizens to remain open. . we had, 'til this year, sort of gone on a storm by storm basis which SURPRIZE resulted in all kind of havoc. This year a memo went out stating that we were aware and supportive of ee's responsibilties to their families so any ee who is NOT storm essential would be allowed to use vacation or sick time and stay home. This takes some of the liabilty off the er in terms of making people come in and putting their safety at risk. Problem was, b/c we had previously granted administrative leave with pay. .people had come to expect this as an entitlement and did not think it was fair they had to use PTO(SURPRIZE again)

My personal opinion is when a disaster is declared ie evacuation or people are told to stay off the roads, administrative leave is in order for non essential. People who must come in, should get 1 1/2 time. In non declared, allowing use of PTO is ok.

Sorry for the long answer but we have battled this ad nauseum. . not cut and dried. .As to getting the word out, we used a memo. .could also use payroll stuffer, company web page etc.