Heavy rain, wind or flooding can prevent a person from getting to their workplace. In those cases, the absence may be covered by a paid leave of up to four days, provided for in article 37.3.g of the Workers' Statute. If the circumstances that justify the leave remain after the four days have passed, it is extended until they disappear.
This article covers two scenarios: the first is the impossibility of accessing the workplace or transiting by the necessary routes to reach it as a consequence of the travel recommendations, limitations or prohibitions issued by the authorities.
The second is the existence of a serious and imminent risk, including situations caused by a catastrophe or an adverse weather phenomenon. Therefore, the leave does not depend exclusively on the closure of a road: it can also come into play when traveling entails a serious danger.
The existence of a weather warning does not, by itself, mean that any worker can stop going to their workplace. Some of the circumstances provided for in the law must occur, and the affected person must communicate and justify the absence. The regulation does not establish a closed list of documents to certify each situation.
How to communicate and justify that you cannot attend
The Statute states that the leaves under article 37.3 must be communicated in advance and justified. If the emergency prevents giving notice in advance, it is advisable to inform the company as soon as possible and explain the circumstances that prevent travel.
To document the situation, notices and recommendations from the authorities, communications about road closures, incidents involving public transport, or any other evidence that makes it possible to certify the difficulties in reaching the workplace can be kept. It is also useful to keep the messages sent to the company and their replies.
The specific documentation will depend on what happened. The Statute recognizes the leave, but it does not set a single form or a closed list of justifications that must be submitted in all cases.
The same article considers the possibility that the company establish remote work when the nature of the activity allows it and the state of the communications networks makes it possible to develop it. In that case, the obligations provided for in the Remote Work Law must be respected, including the provision of suitable means, equipment, and tools.
The regulation does not establish that any worker may unilaterally replace the leave with teleworking. It is the company that can establish that arrangement if the legal conditions are met.
What happens if the temporary situation lasts more than four days
The leave is extended while the circumstances that justified it persist. The Statute also provides that, once the four days have been exceeded, the company may apply a suspension of the employment contract or a reduction in working hours due to force majeure, in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 47.6.
The impossibility of going to the workplace due to the temporary situation must not be confused with the decision to support an strike. In the first case, paid leave may exist if the legal requirements are met; in the second, the absence responds to the exercise of the right to strike and has a different labor regime.