Q. Some of the local schools have closed due to the weather and we’ve had a few employees call in to say they cannot work as they have no childcare. Should they be paid for the day anyway?

A. This depends on what you have in place to cover these situations. There is no legal right for employees to be paid for absence caused by the closure of their child’s school or childcare setting. However, the statutory right to time off for dependants will apply.

This generally only covers one or two days’ absence because the right to time off only covers time to make alternative arrangements in respect of the unforeseen event, rather than time off to actually look after the child.

If schools are closed for longer than a couple of days, you should explore with the employees other ways to cover the time off. You could, if possible, agree that the employees work from home, take annual leave or some other arrangement which means that their pay is unaffected.

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