A quick summary of things to think about as employers dealing with COVID-19 (coronavirus).

The government publishes daily updates at 2pm with the latest stats and advice.

Acas has also produced workplace specific guidance which sets out the steps employers should be taking.

If your industry has been affected by coronavirus and you have a downturn in work, you may also find this guidance on short time working and lay-offs useful.

How can we reduce the risk to our employees?
The risk level is currently identified as moderate. It would be wise as employers to send round an email/guidance encouraging employees to be extra-vigilant with washing their hands, using and disposing of tissues etc. If you have the capacity to do so, it may be worth designating an ‘isolation room’ where an employee who feels ill can go and sit away from the rest of the company and privately call ‘111’ before taking any further necessary action.

If an employee is not sick but is in quarantine or self-isolation, do we have to pay them sick pay?

There is no legal right to sick pay in these circumstances, but it would be good practice. Otherwise you run the risk of them coming into work and potentially spreading the virus to the rest of the workforce. There is also a risk of an argument by not paying someone who has self-isolated – you have breached the implied term of trust and confidence and could be found to have constructively dismissed them. But it is thought that such an argument is weak, for all sorts of reasons.

What if employees do not want to come to work?

Some people may be worried about catching coronavirus and therefore unwilling to come into work. If this is the case you should listen carefully to the concerns of your employees and if possible, offer flexible working arrangements such as homeworking. Employees can also request time off as holiday or unpaid leave but there is no obligation on employers to agree to this. If an employee refuses to attend work, you are entitled to take disciplinary action. However, the view is that dismissal is likely to be outside the range of reasonable responses, at least for now. If someone refuses to come into work and the COVID-19 issues continue into the medium term, this view might change.

The main strands of the Good work plan are as follows:

Right to request a more predictable and stable contract

This new right will mean an employee can request a more predictable and stable contract after 26 weeks of employment.
Examples of what might be requested include a guaranteed minimum number of hours and certainty as to the days on which they will be asked to work.

This new development will predominantly benefit individuals who are employed as casuals or on zero-hour contracts. An employer will have three months to make their decision on any such request.
This is trying to phase out the use of zero hours contracts.

Break in continuous service

Presently, a gap of just one week can break an individual’s continuity of service. Therefore, despite regularly working on and off for the same employer over a long period of time, an individual may not build up any significant length of service.

This break period will be extended from one week to four weeks, helping those employees who work on a sporadic or casual basis to qualify for more employment rights (such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed or the right to statutory maternity pay), which require a particular length of service.

Protecting agency workers

After 12 weeks of service, an agency worker is entitled to receive the same level of pay as a permanent worker, unless the agency worker opts out of this right and instead elects to receive a guaranteed level of pay between their temporary assignments (often referred to as “the Swedish derogation”).

This opt-out will be removed (proposed to take effect in April 2020) because often agency workers are financially worse off taking the Swedish derogation route.

Tips and gratuities

Rules will be implemented to ensure that tips are passed directly to the individual, rather than taken by the employer.
Information and consultation arrangements
Information and consultation arrangements give employees the right to be involved in workplace discussions about an agreed list of topics, such as redundancy proposals.

Currently, support from at least 10% of the workforce is needed for a successful request but we expect that from April 2020 this will be reduced to 2% (although the 15 employee minimum threshold will remain).