Force majeure in employment contracts: what it means for pay

Your hotel floods. Your food factory loses power. The manager calls it “force majeure” and says the week is unpaid. The emergency may be real. The right to stop your wages is a separate question, and those two words do not answer it.

What a force majeure clause actually is

Force majeure means what the contract says it means. English and Scots law do not give an employer an automatic right to stop paying you because a flood, epidemic or power failure interrupts work.

Read the operative words. Does the clause cover this event and allow unpaid lay-off? Must the employer give notice or take other steps first? Permission to close a site is not necessarily permission to stop your salary.

A lay-off clause addresses periods without work; short-time working means reduced hours. As Acas explains, unpaid lay-off can also be authorised by a collective agreement, clearly established custom and practice, or a change you agree. A missing written clause does not settle the question.

Frustration is different. It is the narrow legal doctrine under which an event makes performance impossible or radically different and the contract ends automatically. A temporary closure or increased cost does not, by itself, establish it. Whether an employment contract is frustrated depends on the circumstances.

What it can never override

A statutory right survives the clause, but you must still meet its eligibility rules.

Minimum wage protects pay for work done, not every hour lost during lawful unpaid lay-off. Guarantee pay is the much smaller protection for qualifying workless days. See our minimum wage and sick pay guides.

The workplace closes: do you get paid?

If you are ready and available to work, guaranteed contractual pay normally remains due unless a lawful arrangement permits unpaid lay-off. Withholding wages owed can be an unlawful deduction. “Events beyond our control” is not evidence of permission to stop pay.

Even where unpaid lay-off is allowed, eligible employees can claim statutory guarantee pay. You must have at least one month’s continuous service, be reasonably available for work and not refuse reasonable alternative work. The industrial-action exclusion also matters. Payment is only for days you would normally work but do no work at all because the employer cannot provide it.

The daily payment is your normal daily pay, capped at £41. The maximum is normally five days in any rolling three months. If you normally work fewer than five days a week, the maximum number of paid days is lower. Working reduced hours on a day does not make that day a guarantee-pay day.

Lay-off does not end employment or break continuity of service. Holiday continues to accrue, with different rules for irregular-hours and part-year workers. Ask payroll and your pension scheme about contributions during reduced or unpaid work. See our lay-off guide.

You cannot get to work: storms, strikes, shutdowns

A cancelled bus or flooded road stopping you reaching an open workplace is different from your employer being unable to provide work.

Acas says employers generally do not have to pay for time you cannot work because of travel disruption, unless the contract or another arrangement says otherwise. Ask about paid holiday, an agreed shift swap or other work you can do. Tell your manager promptly and keep evidence of cancellations or unsafe travel. Acas advises against disciplinary action where the disruption genuinely prevents attendance.

Your status decides which rights apply

A zero-hours label does not settle your status or cancel an agreed shift’s pay. Where no hours are guaranteed, an employer may not need a crisis clause to stop offering work. Some workers and agency staff can qualify for SSP under its separate rules. Check your employment status and zero-hours rights.

If lay-off drags on: the redundancy exit

There is no general statutory maximum length for lay-off. An employee with at least two years’ continuous service may have a redundancy-pay exit after the qualifying period, unless the lay-off or short-time work is because of a strike or lockout.

1. Count qualifying weeks. Four consecutive weeks, or six in thirteen with no more than three consecutive. Short-time working means less than half your normal week’s pay.
2. Give written notice of intention to claim. Within four weeks of the qualifying period ending, tell your employer you intend to claim redundancy pay. Keep proof of delivery. This is not your resignation.
3. Allow seven days for a counter-notice. Your employer can contest the claim if normal work is expected within four weeks and will last at least thirteen weeks. A disputed counter-notice may need a tribunal decision.
4. Get advice before resigning. If there is no counter-notice, you have three weeks to give resignation notice, starting seven days after your written claim notice. If the employer withdraws a counter-notice, the three weeks start on withdrawal. Check the notice period you must give and any disputed counter-notice with your adviser.

Follow the GOV.UK procedure with your union or Acas. Leaving outside this route can cost you redundancy pay. The amount depends on age, service and weekly pay, explained in our redundancy-pay guide.

Before you sign a clause: what to check

We would treat an unpaid suspension clause as a pay-cut risk, not reassuring boilerplate. Ask what happens to your money before agreeing to it.

• Which events trigger it, and must they prevent work rather than just make it less profitable?
• What notice and evidence must the employer give you?
• Can it reduce salary, hours or bonuses, and by how much?
• Is there a time limit, a review date and a requirement to consider alternative work?
• What contractual top-up will you receive above guarantee pay?
• What happens to holiday and pension contributions?

Wording allowing “unpaid lay-off where flooding prevents work at the premises” differs from permission to move duties to another site. This is an illustration, not a model clause. Ask for a fixed review date and written pay calculation. Get advice before agreeing to add unpaid lay-off terms to an existing contract. See when an employer can change your pay.

Is there statutory force majeure leave?

There is no UK statutory leave entitlement with that name. An employer may offer contractual emergency leave, but a force majeure clause about stopping work is not a family-leave right.

Employees in Great Britain have a separate right to reasonable time off to deal with an unexpected emergency involving a dependant, under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It is normally unpaid unless your contract provides pay. Tell your employer the reason and expected duration as soon as reasonably practicable. For example, a nursery closing unexpectedly may require immediate arrangements for your child. The right is not open-ended leave to provide ongoing care. See time off for a family emergency.

Northern Ireland has separate employment law

Northern Ireland guarantee pay has the same £41 daily cap, usual five-day limit in three months, £205 maximum and one-month service requirement. The other conditions still apply. Claims go to the Industrial Tribunal; advice and conciliation come from the Labour Relations Agency rather than Acas.

First-day SSP applies in Northern Ireland too. The Great Britain tribunal-time-limit and unfair-dismissal reforms below do not. Ask the LRA about your deadline. Northern Ireland has separate discrimination legislation, not the Equality Act 2010 employment scheme. See our Northern Ireland guide.

What changed and what is still coming

1. 6 Apr 2026Sick-pay eligibility changes

   In force. Waiting days and the lower earnings limit are removed.

2. 7 Apr 2026Fair Work Agency launches

   In force. Minimum wage enforcement, gangmaster licensing and agency standards come together.

3. 1 Jan 2027Ordinary unfair-dismissal protection changes

   Scheduled for Great Britain. The qualifying period falls from two years to six months and the compensatory-award cap goes.

Guaranteed-hours and shift-notice reforms are scheduled for 2027, not an existing right to replacement shifts or closure pay. None creates a statutory force majeure regime. See our Employment Rights Act 2025 guide.

What to do this week if pay has stopped

1. Ask for the legal basis today. Request the exact contract term, collective agreement or other arrangement relied on. Ask why it covers this event and whether you are being laid off or put on short-time working.
2. Keep the evidence. Save your contract, rotas, closure dates, messages and payslips. Record whether you were available for work and any alternative work offered.
3. Demand a pay calculation. Write: “Please confirm what pay is due for each affected day, including statutory guarantee pay, and when you will pay it. Please also give the review date for this arrangement.” Keep a copy.
4. Separate sickness from closure. If you are ill, report it under the normal sickness procedure and ask for SSP where eligible. You cannot claim guarantee pay for a day you are off sick. If SSP is refused, ask for written reasons and advice on an HMRC decision.
5. Contact your rep or an adviser. Ask them to check status, any unpaid lay-off power and your deadline. If you plan a tribunal claim in Great Britain, notify Acas for early conciliation within the applicable limit. Do not wait for the employer’s internal process to finish.

For a single underpayment on 2 October 2026, six months less a day is 1 April 2027 before early-conciliation adjustments. This example is not your deadline: earlier dates, a series of deductions or Northern Ireland proceedings need their own calculation. See our tribunal guide. Do not resign without advice, especially if your visa depends on the job.