We had two employees who could not get to and ‘from’ work because of the bad weather. One said she was snowed in and could not get out of her house (which is in the country up an untreated road). The other was travelling back from Dublin after work and the work van was slipping all over the road. After three hours of not going very far the employee booked into a hotel for the night. What are my responsibilities as an employer in these situations?

It is a matter for an employer's discretion as to whether it pays an employee who is absent from work as a result of severe weather conditions, as there is no legal obligation on an employer to do so. One solution might be to consider allowing an employee to use his/her annual leave to cover these days of absence. However, particularly given that many employees will have used their full annual leave entitlement by this point in the year, where an employee cannot get to work, the employer may allow the employee to take unpaid leave.

Further details would be required to comment fully on the employee who checked into the hotel, as regards whether it is necessary to cover the costs of her doing