A three-day train strike, taking place on 21, 23 and 25 June, will see thousands of rail workers walk out in a dispute over pay and redundancies, causing travel disruption.
What if employees are unable to travel to work?
- Be accommodating of staff who are making an effort to come in – consider being flexible with start and finish times, allow homeworking if their role allows this etc.
- Discuss the strike dates in advance and ask those who use rail as their form of transport to consider alternatives.
- If an employee is unable to get in using another form of transport but the workplace is open and work available, then they may not be paid. However, if they have holiday entitlement, you could offer them this option to avoid any financial impact, or they could use any accrued time off in lieu.
- Some employers may bring disciplinary action against staff unable to make it into work. However, if no other alternative transport could be reasonably taken, this could be deemed “unreasonable” as it is a situation beyond the employee’s control.
- Should travel disruptions continue in the longer term, this may cause employee mental, physical or financial distress, on top of the existing cost of living crisis. This could see good employees choose to resign, which is why it is in a business’s interest to work with staff in navigating strike related travel disruption.
