How to support your Remote employees during and after natural disasters

During a crisis, it's important to be aware and sensitive to the needs of the affected employees. As the Customer, while you cannot predict when a natural disaster will occur, you can prepare in order to offer the affected employees the support that they need. The health, safety, and security of such individuals should be the primary concern of all involved. This comes before thinking about the interests of the business or organisation. 

During emergency situations

To guide you through such unfortunate events, we will outline some useful information about employment during these times.

Reasons why affected employees might not be able to work:

• Employees who are willing and able to work during the agreed-upon hours may not have access to a suitable and secure workplace.
• They might not be able to access the workplace because of restrictions out of your or their control (e.g. road closures, safety issues relating to adjoining buildings, evacuation due to flooding or tsunami risk).
• They (or their dependant) might be sick or injured and unable to work.

We can't assume that time away from work in during such a time would be paid or unpaid without reviewing the Employment Agreement or workplace policies. All parties should refer to the Employment Agreement to see if such a situation is covered. If it’s not, then it is up to all parties to decide in good faith if the time off from work is paid or unpaid. Employees have the right to stop work if it’s not safe to be at work due to health concerns.

Support that you can offer affected employees

• Take care of the health and safety of your Remote employees, yourself, and your customers.
• If the employees' workplace is unsafe, do not make it necessary for them to work there.
• Communication and support are very important. Keep them updated about the workplace situation and your expectations of them.
• Offer them care and support. Provide regular updates even if they are not physically at work as they may be under additional stress. 
• Consider wider infrastructure issues (e.g. road closures, power outages or water restrictions). Be flexible about working hours and availability expectations.

If you'd like further assistance regarding this topic, please reach out to us and we will gladly assist.

NOTE: You can reach out to our team via email at help@remote.com or directly on the Remote platform via the web widget on the bottom left corner.