Overview
- With fresh severe-weather alerts for ice and snow, widespread delays and cancellations are affecting road and rail travel across Germany today.
- Under the Wegerisiko principle, employees are responsible for arriving on time despite weather or transport problems, allowing pay deductions for lost hours and, if repeated, formal warnings.
- Experts advise notifying the employer as soon as delays are foreseeable, leaving earlier where possible, and proposing alternatives such as remote work or later make-up hours, though there is no general right to home office.
- Missed time is typically unpaid, while DGB notes that an acute severe-weather warning can in some cases justify staying home without guaranteeing pay, and BGB §616 may cover short childcare-related absences if not excluded by contract.
- Falls or crashes on the direct route count as a Wegeunfall under statutory accident insurance, requiring a visit to a Durchgangsarzt, immediate employer notification, and an accident report to the Berufsgenossenschaft or Unfallkasse if incapacity exceeds three days.