Dive Brief:

• Employers may be faced with a variety of employment-related issues during hurricane season, according to an article at JDSupra. This week, while Hurricane Erika dissipated some before hitting Florida (the storm did cause severe flooding in Florida and South Carolina), it did cause several deaths in the Caribbean. Hurricane Fred was forming in the Atlantic, as of Monday night. 
• The 2015 hurricane season serves as a reminder that employers should be prepared to address storm-related issues if they are required to close their businesses and as they prepare to resume normal operations, according to Salvador Simao, an attorney with Ford Harrison.
• For example, employers need to determine whether closing the office means having to pay workers who stay home, whether they'll be responsible for unemployment compensation and whether workers' compensation applies to weather-related injuries.

Dive Insight:

Simao outlines several areas of concern for employers related to storm conditions. From a FLSA compliance standpoint, the employer may need to pay employees who miss work because of the weather -- though this depends on their exempt and non-exempt status. Exempt employees are entitled to regular salaries for any shutdown that last less than a week. A private employer may, however, deduct the period of absence from the employee's paid vacation or paid time off, as long as the employee receives his or her full salary for the week.

Under the FLSA, employers generally are not required to pay non-exempt employees for any days that the employee does not perform any actual work. Thus, employers are not required to pay employees for days they did not come to work or for days when the business was closed because of a weather event.

Other areas of concern include state reporting pay requirements, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), on-call time, unemployment compensation and workers compensation, as all can be affected by catastrophic weather events. If your business is within a hurricane zone, be sure to check the entire article for specifics on those areas.