Employment Law Question

shane_by

The following question relates to a completely hypothetical situation and is not a request for legal advice.

Suppose my place of employment is closed for, say 2 days, due to a burglary or flooding etc. Is my employer obliged to pay me my wages for those 2 days?

padser

Completely depends on your employment situation.

Are you a casual worker who simply gets hours occassionally and at the employers discertion. If so then you don't really have much recourse, as he can simply not give you hours as he would be entitled to do

shane_by

padser wrote:

Completely depends on your employment situation.

Are you a casual worker who simply gets hours occassionally and at the employers discertion. If so then you don't really have much recourse, as he can simply not give you hours as he would be entitled to do

Let's say I am not a casual worker.

johnnyskeleton

If the hypothetical person had a written contract of employment, then that would be relevant, and it would be a good idea to read the terms about payment of wages etc.

If the person is paid a salary to be available for a certain amount of time e.g. 37.5 hours per week, then it is not really their fault if there is no work to be done. It is important that the hypothtical person has the expectation of a regular salary then they are probably entitled to it.

If this person is paid an hourly rate and it is clear that they are paid for the actual work done rather than for generally holding the position then they might not be entitled.

They might hypothetically make a good moral case to their hypothetical employer too, so hypothetically they should try to find out what the employer hypothetically intends to do.

seamus

It's a grey area.

While the employer has a right to take the days from the employee's annual leave, they cannot do so without giving adequate notice. And obviously you can't plan for a burglary or a fire a month in advance. In court, they could plead extenuating circumstances, but for the sake of a day or two's pay, I don't think it would hold up.

Hypothetically, your employer is required to pay you because you were available to work, and you had otherwise not been given notice that work would be suspended.

Your rights would be further supported if your employer was fully insured. The insurance company should compensate the employer for all losses arising out of those two non-working days, and although that doesn't include your wages (as the employer would have paid them anyway), your employer would not be at a loss by giving you your wages for those days. In fact (and I'm not sure if this is written in law), in the above circumstances, an employer would be defrauding their insurance company if they failed to pay your wages. Insurance covers all losses. You are not permitted to make a profit from an insurance claim. By failing to pay wages, an employer would be profiting from their insurance settlement, thereby defrauding the insurance company.

shane_by

Thanks for all the replies guys.

shane_by

shane_by wrote:

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I am very grateful (hypothetically, of course).