LUL's Guidance on Adverse Weather

Here is LUL's guidance for staff who couldn't get to work because of the snow.

Guidance for attendance for all Operational Staff in LU following the adverse weather conditions.

Employees are required to make every effort to get to their place of work and should always be encouraged to use every reasonable means to achieve this objective. It is their responsibility to get to work.

Where travel to their normal location was not possible, employees should have reported to their closest Underground Station and informed both their normal Manager and Duty Manager on site where they would have been given productive work to do.

If staff were unable to get to work, rather then being unpaid they may prefer to use annual leave and managers should be flexible in granting annual leave retrospectively.

Managers must satisfy themselves that meaningful work has been undertaken if the individual is not able to get to their normal location, otherwise a days leave must be taken.

Managers must satisfy themselves that employees have made every effort to attend work.

A common sense approach should apply and these guidelines should be interpreted according to each individual circumstance.

I believe that this is very unreasonable, and have asked RMT head office to write to LUL outlining our objections.

Why should staff lose a day's annual leave or a day's pay just because they physically couldn't make it to work?!

And how were they supposed to know that they should have reported to their closest Underground station when this guidance has not previously been circulated?! In any case, many staff would not have been able to reach their nearest Underground station, as they might usually rely on a bus, train or car journey to get them there, all of which might have been impossible.

Staff who genuinely could not attend work should, in my view, have paid leave granted.

I have asked management for further clarification regarding staff who could not attend work because their kids' school was closed.