Coronavirus: an update for employers

In this article, we consider some of more recent official announcements regarding coronavirus and on a practical level, what these mean for employers. In addition, our coronavirus FAQs for employers, answers lots of the most commonly questions that our employment team are being asked.

Working from home during social-isolation

As we have moved to the ‘delay’ phase in the fight against coronavirus, the government’s new social-distancing guidance advises everyone (for whom it is practical to do so) to temporarily work from home. However, for people falling into certain vulnerable groups, the guidance strongly advises them to work from home, and if this is not possible, they should vary their commute times and use less public transport. Three key steps employers should take now to protect their most vulnerable staff are:

1. Identify which members of staff fall into the following high risk categories:

• Those who are pregnant
• Those aged 70 or older (regardless of medical conditions)
• Those aged under 70 with specified underlying health conditions (including common conditions such as chronic asthma, COPD, diabetes)

Do not make assumptions about which staff fall into the above high risk categories – ask them to come forward and identify themselves so that steps to protect their health and safety can be agreed.

2. Consider whether it is possible for high-risk staff to work from home

If it is possible, take steps to facilitate homeworking. If homeworking is not possible, consider alternatives such as:

• Varying their working hours by consent (e.g. so they can avoid busy commuting times)
• Varying their duties (e.g. move them away from customer facing duties)
• Allowing them to take a period of accrued annual leave or agreed unpaid leave
• Medically suspend them on full pay (see below re pregnant women)
• Remember your duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled staff

As any variation to the terms and conditions of a high-risk employee will likely last for at least 12 weeks, the temporary changes should be confirmed in writing within one month.

3. Update any pregnancy risk assessments

Employers have additional health and safety obligations to protect women of childbearing age and new or expectant mothers. The employer is under an obligation to do all that is reasonable to remove or prevent exposure to any significant risk identified in a risk assessment. If the risk cannot be avoided through other action, the employer must either temporarily alter the woman’s working conditions or hours of work, or offer the woman suitable alternative work where it is available. Failing which, the employer must suspend the employee for as long as is necessary to avoid the risk. An employee who is suspended on maternity grounds is entitled to be paid remuneration equivalent to their normal pay.

The importance of reinforcing the self-isolation guidance

Staff should be instructed to follow the current self-isolation guidance (7 days for an individual/14 days for a family). Crucially, it is important to filter this message down to line managers. Managing staff shortages is stressful for everyone, but if line managers are seen to encourage staff to ignore the self-isolation advice (e.g. because the worker is not currently sick, but someone in the household is), this is reckless. It may lead to more widespread illness within the workforce and may lead to personal injury claims from staff who contract coronavirus after being forced to work alongside a colleague who should have been self-isolating. Employers may also want to consider their messaging around disciplinary and performance issues. For example, if an absence would ordinarily result in a disciplinary warning, consider making it clear that this will not occur if an employee is following the self-isolation guidance. People who present at work showing coronavirus symptoms (or saying their close family has coronavirus symptoms) MUST be sent home.

Updated statutory sick pay (SSP) regulations and SSP reimbursement for SMEs

Since our last update, there have been some changes and news to the statutory sick pay (SSP) regime and regarding the scheme which will allow small to medium sized employers to recover SSP. In summary:

• The SSP regulations have been amended so that an employee is ‘deemed’ incapacitated, and therefore able to claim SSP, if they are following the new official self-isolation guidance. If the employee is under precautionary self-isolation due to a symptomatic relative, it may be possible to agree with them to continue working from home if this is practical, in which case they should be paid as normal
• A new Coronavirus Bill will, subject to parliamentary approval, give the government the power to temporarily suspend the ‘waiting days’ rule so that SSP is available from the first day of incapacity (this will have retrospective effect from 13 March 2020, meaning it’s best practice to follow this rule now)

The eligibility criteria for the SSP reimbursement scheme (which covers employees actually or deemed incapacitated due to coronavirus) will be as follows:

• up to 2 weeks’ SSP per eligible employee can be reimbursed
• employers with fewer than 250 employees (as of 28 February 2020) will be eligible
• employers should maintain records of staff absences, but self-certification is acceptable

We do not yet have any further details of how reimbursements can be claimed.

Business support measures announced

The chancellor gave a speech on 17 March 2020, outlining various business support measures, including:

• No business rates this year for any business in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors
• Cash grant of up to £25,000 per business with a rateable value of less than £51,000 in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors
• Cash grant of up to £10,000 per business for the smallest firms
• Up to £330 billion in guarantees for government-backed loans

Relaxation of rules for certain sectors

• Heavy goods and public service vehicle industries: new statutory statement
• Pubs/restaurants: planning rules will be relaxed ASAP so pubs and restaurants can operate as hot food takeaways during the coronavirus outbreak

For further updates and other articles discussing the impact of the coronavirus please view our coronavirus hub.