WILTSHIRE Council staff who were stranded abroad because of the Icelandic volcanic ash will be paid for their time off work.

In an unprecedented move by the unitary authority, they have decided that workers grounded by the ash last month will receive up to five extra days paid leave, but this comes with a stark warning that this will not be the case should employees decide to fly from now on.

The policy agreed on Wednesday means staff must use their standard leave days, make up the time or will not get paid if the same circumstances arise.

But Swindon Council has refused to follow suit and has said that they leave it up to individual managers’ discretion on matters such as this.

A Swindon Council spokesperson said: “We took a broad, flexible approach concerning the impact of air travel disruption on our staff due to the ash cloud. “We recognised that stranded staff were keen to get home and return to work. Therefore, we didn’t feel these staff needed to take additional leave out of their allocated annual leave to cover the delayed days.

“We asked all managers to be supportive during this period by addressing any backlog of work.

“Further arrangements were at the managers’ discretion.

“As a result, we did not gather any information concerning the number of staff affected by the ash cloud.”

At least 250 Wiltshire school staff and 42 other workers at Wiltshire Council were stuck overseas in the week beginning April 19.

Councillor Allison Bucknell, portfolio holder for customer care at the unitary authority, said: “A new policy regarding volcanic ash and other unforeseen acts of God was the subject of a healthy debate at Wednesday’s meeting.

“It was felt it would be unfair to pay staff in future for such situations as this is a risk taken by the individual which should not be paid for by the tax payer.

“I am pleased we now have a policy in place to cover any future incidents.”

But the council can only advise schools on the procedure to be followed – schools can either follow their advice or refer to the advice given by Local Government Employers (LGE).

The new document is in line with the council’s severe weather policy.