Advice for employees in the event of inclement weather

With the forecast indicating the possibility of heavy snow tomorrow, we wanted to provide this guidance to leaders who may be receiving questions from staff and faculty.

As you know, the university will make every effort to remain open. Having said that, the university recognizes that, despite best intentions and efforts, inclement weather may delay or otherwise prevent employees from reporting to work. As such, we are often asked questions with respect to pay for employees if they are unable to attend work as scheduled because of inclement conditions.

As a general rule, if the BC Transit bus system is operating and servicing the university, the university remains open. UVic only interrupts regular operations under exceptional circumstances and has closed only twice due to weather since its founding in 1963. We encourage staff and faculty to please use caution travelling to and from the university and around campus and to use public transit where possible.

The university's practice with respect to pay has been to take reasonable steps to minimize the possibility that staff would lose pay if they are unable to come to work, or arrive late, due to these circumstances. Depending on the collective agreement, staff may apply to use vacation days, banked overtime, or, subject to scheduling and operational requirements, may be allowed to make up the time later.

There may be exceptional circumstances, during a period of inclement weather, where an employee may request to perform some or all of his/her work from home for a short duration. Deans, chairs and other administrators may consider the operational impact of these requests on a case by case basis and are welcome to consult with their Human Resources consultant as needed.

To keep abreast of the impact of the weather on the university, please continue to monitor the weather advisory section of the UVic website at uvic.ca or uvic.ca/current-faculty-staff/.