Millions of workers issued 'snow day' guidance ahead of UK facing 'eight inches'

Millions of workers have been issued snow guidance - amid hopes of a day off this week with England pummelled by 21cm of the white stuff. Snow warnings are in effect from the Met Office, which has triggered yellow weather warnings as we head into the new working week.

The yellow alerts span Sunday through Tuesday, with parts of England set to receive a dusting including York, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland, and swathes of the North West, too, including Lancashire.

There isn't a minimum temperature as such which is deemed safe to work in, according to employment lawyer Simon Robinson. But your boss does have a duty of care for your well-being. This includes the health and safety of your workplace.

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"The obligation on an employer is merely to provide a reasonable workplace temperature and therefore conducting an appropriate risk assessment is advisable," said Mr Robinson. "The impact of outdoor working conditions has the potential to seriously impact employee health where hazards are not effectively managed.

"Employers should consider how long their employees will be required to work in these conditions, what rest breaks and facilities their employees have access to and whether they have issued suitable PPE. If an employer cannot ensure suitable measures to guarantee safety at work, then employees should not be required to carry out the work in those conditions."

aura Kearsley, partner and solicitor at Nelsons, said: "It is generally an employee’s responsibility to get to and from work and so if this is not possible, the employer is entitled to regard such absence as unauthorised. An exception to this might be where the employer provides transport (e.g. a bus service) and this is cancelled."

"This also cannot be marked down as a holiday - however, they can request you work from home if you are able to," said Ms Kearsley. "If you are on a zero hours contract or your employer has a contractual right to decline to offer you work at short notice, they may not have to pay you.

"Also, if there is an advance notice of bad weather, the employer could give prior notice to require employees to take their holiday."