Closed due to snow, deducting staff pay

[Rroff]

They are typically a work place that demand you get in no matter what. About 10 years back my wife was pressured into going in and crashed her car (just into a curb, nothing major) as she didn't know how to drive in the snow. I still recall them asking her if she could get a bus the rest of the way when she told them what happened and reminder her she'd need to make the hours back. They're also the work place where illness doesn't exist, you will go in no matter what.

For me, it's about setting expectations. Based on the rare occasions they have closed they paid everyone, so why was this one different? As mentioned, they've semi-backed down and it's now taken as holiday and they are apparently putting together a policy for closures which they should have had before really.

To take a positive from this experience, it's given my wife the push to find a better work environment.

They actually changed the law a little around 2-3 years ago in this respect which seems to have flown over a lot of employer's heads. Unfortunately a couple of years down the line I'm not upto speed on the specifics but in circumstances where something bad happens, where there is evidence the employer pressured employees into coming into work ignoring concerns over health and safety they can also be held liable including potentially prison sentences.

Though given the massive ignorance of changes related to GDPR, etc. in work places it doesn't really surprise me that many employers aren't upto speed.

 

[AHarvey]

I used to work in a factory where some weeks work would be manic, the next, dead.

on the quiet weeks, we used to say to the staff, "if anyone wants to leave early they can". This was because if we said "you're going home as there is no work" we'd still have to pay them, but if they chose to leave we didn't.

That was going back 15 years though.

 

[Jonnybmac]

They are typically a work place that demand you get in no matter what. About 10 years back my wife was pressured into going in and crashed her car (just into a curb, nothing major) as she didn't know how to drive in the snow. I still recall them asking her if she could get a bus the rest of the way when she told them what happened and reminder her she'd need to make the hours back. They're also the work place where illness doesn't exist, you will go in no matter what.

For me, it's about setting expectations. Based on the rare occasions they have closed they paid everyone, so why was this one different? As mentioned, they've semi-backed down and it's now taken as holiday and they are apparently putting together a policy for closures which they should have had before really.

To take a positive from this experience, it's given my wife the push to find a better work environment.

I've worked in those environments. Actually got a final written warning for a work related injury which went against me when redundancies came around. Blessing in disguise. They actually had 100% attendance for over a year there and nobody dared be the one who broke that record.
Some companys are horrible and a world away from how they should function.

In this basis i would be inclined to think the company did this for their own gain