A paper published by the House of Commons on April 2nd, 2021, outlines the rules around COVID-19 and returning to work.
Here is a brief summary which outlines lockdown legislation, employer’s health and safety obligations and when workers can refuse to work.
Download full report here.
In late March 2020, the UK Government imposed a National lockdown in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic that swept the country. Government imposed rules that prohibited people from going to work unless otherwise impossible to work from home.
February 22nd, 2021, the COVID-19 Response – Spring paper was published outlining the Governments plans for lifting the restrictions in England.
Lockdown laws and Guidance
According to Daniel Ferguson – Senior Research Analyst of the House of Commons, ‘there are a number of circumstances where a person may be prohibited from going to work by public health legislation (Lockdown laws) or public health guidance, including those who are:
- Able to work from home;
- Required to self-isolate;
- Required to quarantine (self-isolation after travel);
- Extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 (shielding); and
- Whose workplace is required to close.’
Workers who are unable to go to work or work from home may be eligible to be furloughed under extended Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Health and Safety
Employers are obliged to comply to a range of health and safety requirements. Employers should:
- Undertake a risk assessment;
- Set up and implement a safe and compliant systems of work based on the risk assessment;
- Keep systems of work under review
Refusing to go to work
Employment rights legislation does protect those employees who refuse to attend work on the following grounds:
- There is serious and imminent danger;
- Employee takes steps to protect others from such dangers
The Governments working safety guidelines say that there are certain workers who should not be asked to attend work. When deciding if an employee should attend work, the following protected characteristics such as disability, pregnancy, age should be considered but not discriminated against. Health and Safety laws protect new and existing mothers who must be suspended on full pay if they cannot be offered work that is safe.
Issues
Some issues have been raised with regards to the approaches of returning to work. These concerns include:
- Disagreements arise between employer and employee regarding the safety of returning to work. The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) advise that these matters are best addressed in a dialogue between the employer, employee and safety representative.
- Employees who refuse to go to work because reasonable fears about serious and imminent dangers, are unclear if this includes fears about the safety of their commute.
- Although schools have reopened, there are parents that still need to take time off to care for a child who needs to self-isolate. These parents are entitled to emergency time off for dependents, but this is unpaid. The parent can ask to be furloughed but the decision to do so lies with the employer.
- Employers have suggested that they will introduce ‘no jab, no job’ policies which instructs employees to vaccinate in order to qualify for job offers. This could result in discrimination claims by those who are unable to vaccinate or who choose not to do so.
Whistleblowing
Employment laws offer protection to whistleblowers who make ‘protected disclosures.’ Not all disclosures are protected and must relate to a particular subject matter and be made to one of the groups listed in the legislation.
The future of lockdown
- England looks forward to its next big step towards relaxing lockdown on the April 12th, 2021. Many businesses including non-essential retail, leisure and hospitality sectors will reopen to the public. The Government has published an article outlining the roadmap of lifting lockdown in the subsequent months.
- In the Budget 2021 Speech, Furlough (CJRS) would be extended until September 30th, 2021.
- Whist the HMRC will cover 80% of a furloughed employees wages, from the July 1st, 2021 employers will be required to cover 10% of wages and 20% from August 01st, 2021.
- Employees are eligible for furlough if they were employed on 30 October 2020 on a PAYE payroll notified to HMRC on or before that date. Workers who were employed on September 23rd, 2020 but stopped working after that date can be re-employed and furloughed. From May 1st, 2021, employees will be eligible if they were employed on March 2nd, 2021 on a payroll notified to HMRC on or before that date. See rules that are set out in the CJRS direction.
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