Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC office, was quoted in the Reading Eagle, in “Hard Weather Brings Hard Decisions,” by Evan Jones. (Read the full version - subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

Things appeared to be dire Tuesday night when the weather prognosticators were saying the Reading area could get up to 18 inches of snowfall as yet another nor’easter made its way up the East Coast.

Schools had already canceled classes for Wednesday when business owners were faced with a decision: stay open or close the next day?

It’s not an easy decision, considering a missed day could be costly to a company’s bottom line. While the big boys such as Walmart and Target can absorb the losses, the small business owner has little room for error. …

The Society of Human Resources Management advises businesses to be flexible.

“It is important for an employer to use common sense in these circumstances, based on a realistic assessment of the hazards an employee would have faced in getting to or from work,” Paul DeCamp, an attorney and former administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division told SHRM. “It is not usually worthwhile in the long run to come down hard on an employee for refusing to drive on icy roads, or during heavy snowfall with limited visibility and reports of numerous traffic accidents, or when there are severe service disruptions on public transportation.”

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.