Hi,

Looking for some opinions here on stopping staff from leaving your car park, which may or may not be ploughed / gritted and travelling home on the public highway.  Is it a case of you can only give advice that "the weather out there's really bad, you'd be safer staying here for the time being" or can you legally say "the weather out there's really bad, you're staying here for the time being"??

Is it possible to legally stop staff etc from driving on your car park in order to reach the public highway, therefore by default the second scenario above comes into play?

Thanks

Some companies will put staff up in a local hotel if weather conditions are bad, I know my old employer (distribution centre working shifts - mornings and afternoons) would put you up in the hotel , pay for your food etc but expect you to walk into work to cover the morning shift in work if the opposite shift couldnt get into work - if the snow lasted a few days then we were expected to cover the shifts - our arguement was if we cant get home surely our stock wouldnt be able to reach our customers??

I did hear that depending on the forcast if there was a severe weather warning and  you were advised to stay indoors and you decided to risk driving and have an accident your insurance could decide not to pay out - dont know how true that really is mind?

Grown adults - completed contractual hours / hand over arrangements - they are free to stay or go as they wish

IF you try to insist they stay what provision and facilities do you have / have you made / will you make e.g. toiletries, change of clothes, washing facility, food & beverage, sleeping, communications with family etc. how long is your resource planning intended to last one/two/three nights?

Find something more worthwhile to focus your efforts on ... and dont perpetuate hearsay about invalidated insurance - if we all stopped at every weather warning the country would grind to a halt.