What are your responsibilities as an employer during the office party?

Whether you hold the party on or off Company premises, Company rules and procedures still apply. You need to ensure that this is clearly communicated to staff prior to the event. If you are faced with a member of staff breaching your rules of conduct at the event then your normal disciplinary procedures would apply.

As an employer you need to think about how your employees will get home after the event. You have a duty of care to ensure that they do not drive home if they have been drinking, for example ensuring there are adequate alternative methods of transport available from the event such as late night buses and taxis. You would not be expected to pay for these but should ensure they are readily available.

If there is any damage to the venue by an employee, then as the organiser/ employer you may be liable to any costs associated as a result of the damage. However, this would be considered as misconduct and therefore your disciplinary rules would once again apply.

In summary, as an employer you have a duty of care to ensure the safety of your employees and can be liable for the conduct of your employees whilst at a Company event. Your employees have a duty to observe the Company rules and behave accordingly.

Many of my employees were unable to attend work recently due to the snow. Are they entitled to be paid for this time off?

With the recent bad weather causing a headache for employees to get into work, employers need to adopt a fair and consistent policy when it comes to dealing with absence caused by extreme weather conditions or disruptions to public transport.

The responsibility lies firmly with your employees to get to work regardless of weather conditions or other disruptions. Therefore unless there is a contractual obligation on you to provide transport for your employees to and from their place of work, then if they are unable to attend work in these circumstances, you are under no obligation to pay them.

In an ideal world employers would have a policy on how to deal with these unusual situations to ensure all staff know who to report to if they are unable to get to work, and also what options are available to them.

If an employee's normal mode of transport cannot be used in these circumstances, you should first encourage the employee to explore alternative means of safe transport. If this is not possible then consideration should be given whether the employee could usefully work from home until the weather situation improves.

If neither of these are viable options, then employers need to ensure that employees know that any time off work in these circumstances will be unpaid. The final option is that employees can request to take the time off as paid annual leave.

Different rules would apply if the business chose to close due to the severe weather conditions and your employees were ready and able to attend work. In this circumstance normal wages should be paid unless you have a contractual provision which allows you to consider this period an unpaid lay off period.