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The August bank holiday period saw delays and cancellations of international flights, leaving around a quarter of a million holidaymakers stranded abroad.

A technical problem at the National Air Traffic Services, which runs UK air traffic control systems, severely limited take offs and landings for roughly four hours. It was enough of a problem to cancel thousands of flights across UK airports over the bank holiday period.

Many holidaymakers would have missed work on the day(s) they were stranded. HR and employment law experts have advised employers to be sympathetic to employees who are stranded through no fault of their own, but it doesn’t change the fact that many of these holidaymakers probably had no choice but to be on unauthorised leave from work.

So, if this happens, what might your employer do?

Below are my observations (again, not advice as I’m still not qualified to give that yet!).

No work = no pay

The simplest option is that the employer doesn’t pay the employee whose absence is unauthorised. Strictly speaking, the employee is breaching their contract if they’re not at work on a day they haven’t booked as approved leave or sickness absence, so their employer isn’t obliged to pay them for this unauthorised absence. Harsh, but fair since employment contracts typically provide for this.

Enforced annual leave

Employers could consider asking the employee to take more leave so that they’ll be paid.

While employers can compel employees to take annual leave, Acas (a human resource consulting company) suggests that the notice period for this should be at least twice as long as the leave they’re compelling the employee to take. So, for one day’s annual leave, the employer must give at least two days’ notice.

However, it’s likely there won’t be enough time to give this notice period. Not only that, but there’s a risk that forcing an employee to take annual leave might hurt the relationship between employer and employee, so it’s vital that this is approached appropriately and tactfully.

Granting free annual leave

The employer could choose to use their discretion and grant the stranded employee an additional day’s annual leave and pay the employee, understanding that it isn’t their fault they were stranded.

That’s very generous, but there’s a chance that this might cause resentment among colleagues who’d likely have had to cover their workload. The relationship between those colleagues, or the employer and those colleagues, might be impacted.

Time off in lieu (TOIL)

TOIL is time off as compensation for working overtime instead of receiving overtime pay.

The employer and employee could agree that the employee makes up the time that was lost due to being stranded, and that the time they weren’t able to work would be classed as TOIL.

TOIL is not a form of statutory leave, so it’s at the discretion of the employer, either in an employment contract or company absence policy.

My previous employers have tended to be reasonable and open to discussion when it comes to granting occasional TOIL, so long as the business and clients aren’t negatively impacted. So, it never hurts to ask.

Work while stranded

Funny how many big employers are mandating “more often than not” office attendance when a solution to an employee being stranded and unable to come into the office might be remote working!

It may be unlikely, however, that the employee took a work laptop with them on holiday given that a holiday is meant to be a time to switch off from work. So, while this is a potential solution, it’s an unlikely one.

These are some options available to the employer. It’s important that the employee follows  normal absence procedure and lets their employer know that they won’t be able to work as soon as they can. Otherwise, the employer will likely consider the absence unauthorised.

Almost everyone has a mobile phone with internet access, whether it’s their own or given to them by their employer. Employees should contact their employer via a phone call, email or instant message, whether they’re in the UK or overseas using roaming features. It shouldn’t take long or cost much for an employee to send their employer a short message saying “flight is delayed, I’m going to be late back to work, sorry” or words to that effect.

The employment relationship

I believe communication and trust are key to a good and positive employment relationship. There’s the implied term of mutual trust and confidence between the employer and employee. However, I think being able to build trust other than what is contractually expected means that, should things like this happen, the employer may be more sympathetic to the employee. Employers may be more open to using their discretion if they know that the employee can be trusted to represent the employer positively to clients and partners and deliver services to the highest possible standard.

A positive employment relationship requires the employer and employee to contribute to it together, and open communication is key here.

Moving forward

Might the disruption we saw over the bank holiday weekend come around again? It could be quite likely!

So, can employers consider introducing or amending policies to deal with unforeseen circumstances so that clear rules and expectations are in place before an event such as this happens again? That way, employees and employers are clear on what to expect should employees get stranded abroad.