The Office of State Human Resources announced last week the long-awaited update to its Adverse Weather Policy, as well as the creation of a new and separate Emergency Closing Policy.

The key difference is that the Adverse Weather Policy applies only to commute conditions, while the Emergency Closing Policy applies to dangerous workplace conditions.

This new Adverse Weather Policy will be consistently applied across the state. This means that if employees leave work or are unable to report to work due to adverse weather, the time missed will be charged to accrued compensatory time, or if none exists, employees may be approved to make up the time using overtime within 90 days – unlike in the past.

Under the separate Emergency Closing Policy, if the worksite is closed because it dangerous for the public and employees to even be there, no work time will be required to be made up.

Adverse Weather Policy

Under this new policy, adverse weather conditions are defined as:

“When the National Weather Service issues severe weather warnings for weather conditions that may adversely impact an employee’s commute to and from work or may adversely impact the State’s ability to continue to prove non-mandatory operations to clients, customers, patients, students or the general public.”

The new policy also explains that all mandatory employees are required to report to work under adverse weather conditions, even if the governor or State Highway Patrol have asked motorists to stay off the roads. If such conditions cause an employee to be late reporting to work, the time may be made up with a supervisor’s approval without using leave time.

Non-mandatory personnel may be approved for adverse weather leave if non-mandatory operations, “in the geographic area directly impacted by the adverse weather conditions,” are suspended by the agency head.

The key difference now is when and how those leaves of absence must be made up.

In some instances, particularly under a State of Emergency declaration by the governor, non-mandatory personnel may seek approval from their supervisor to work from home or an alternate work site. If non-mandatory employees take leave, those lost hours will first be charged to any existing comp time (holiday, overtime, gap hours, callback, on-call, travel or emergency closing). If an employee’s comp time does not cover the entire period of absence, the employee can either use vacation leave, bonus leave, request leave without pay, or make up the lost time through overtime “where operational needs allow and a supervisor approves” within 90 days.

Legitimate purposes for overtime include making up the missed work, special projects or trainings that are difficult to fit into regular work day, and work on any existing backlogs.When making up time with overtime, each hour of overtime is worth 1.5 hours of regular time. So, for example, only two hours of overtime will be required to make up three hours of regular time.

Emergency Closing Policy

Also new is what qualifies as an emergency closing.

According to the new policy emergency conditions are those considered by agency heads and emergency officials to be “hazardous to life or safety of both the general public as well as employees at a specific location or worksite.”

Examples of emergency evacuations include “catastrophic life threatening natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and floods” or possibly “fire, bomb threats, prolonged disruption of power and/or water, contamination by hazardous agents, terrorist acts.” Snow and ice only constitute emergency conditions if they threaten the structural safety of the worksite.

The policy also notes that the loss of heat/air conditioning doesn’t meet that threshold and that employees with health concerns or those affected by prolonged losses during extreme weather conditions should be allowed to work from an alternative site or use appropriate leave.

The policy specifically notes that a “State of Emergency” by the governor does not necessarily call for emergency closings and that emergency closings are “site-specific.” It also specifically notes that, “The State of North Carolina does not close due to winter storms (snow and ice) that impact travel conditions (accumulation of ice/snow on roads, parking lots, and sidewalks).”

The policy explains that designated emergency employees are responsible for reporting to and remaining at work and that failure to do so, may result in discipline action and/or requiring the hours to be made up in accordance with the adverse weather policy. The only exception is if an employee notifies his/her supervisor that conditions will make them late and the supervisor agrees, the lost time will not be charged.

Also new is how employees can account for their time under emergency conditions.

Non-emergency employees not required to report an alternate work site will not be charged leave time or required to make up the lost hours.

Emergency employees will receive emergency time off on an hour-for-hour basis for all hours worked. That time must be used within 12 months and should be used after compensatory time, but before vacation, bonus or sick leave. It is non-transferable and will not be paid out.

Non-emergency employees who are called in for cleanup and recovery while the agency is closed will be compensated the same as emergency employees.

Non-emergency employees assigned to alternate work sites or who make alternate arrangements will be paid regular salaries, but will not receive emergency time off.

What it means for you

So what does all of this mean for state employees?

With these changes the state has tightened its rules for what constitutes an emergency closing. This means that in cases of snow and ice or other adverse weather conditions, more employees will likely be forced to use leave time or to make the time up. However, the fact that employees now have 90 days to make up the lost hours through overtime is a new benefit that many should be able to use to protect their leave – and something advocated for by SEANC.

SEANC was fortunate to able to weigh in on these changes and we were able to provide at least some protection for state employees. We will continue to work with OSHR to ensure that state employees are treated fairly and that their safety is considered during adverse weather and emergency closing conditions.

If you have any questions, click here for the OSHR policy.