Guidance and Legislation

New coronavirus regulations have come into force in England.  The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions)(Self-Isolation)(England) Regulations 2020 make it an offence for an employer to knowingly permit a self-isolating worker to attend any place other than where they are self-isolating.  This includes individuals who are required to self-isolate because they are living with someone who has tested positive, whether the worker has tested positive themselves or not.  Employers who fail to do this will face a fine starting at £1,000.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place and on Public Transport) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 and The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 extend the requirement to wear face coverings to more places and require staff in hospitality and retail to wear them.  As has been widely reported, in consequence of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2020 hospitality and entertainment venues must also close between 10pm and 5am, with maximum fines for breaches being increased.

Although the furlough scheme is in the latter stages of its existence, the guidance on it is still being updated.  The Calculate how much you can claim using the CJRS guidance had a new subsection added - Work out your employee's usual hours and furloughed hours - to tell employees how to calculate the number of working hours and furloughed hours for an employee that comes off furlough or flexible furlough part way through a claim period.  The Claim for wages through the CJRS guidance and accompanying claims form template have also been updated for employers claiming for 100 or more employees - employers are now required to state whether an employee has returned from statutory leave before being put on furlough.

ACAS, the CBI and the TUC have issued a joint statement to employers who are having to undertake redundancies.  The message is to exhaust all possible alternatives before making redundancies and, if redundancies do have to be made, the process should be open, thorough, genuine, fair and handled with dignity.

The UK Government has launched a £238m scheme for jobseekers.  Job Entry Targeted Support ("JETS") is intended to support those left jobless for three months or more due to the pandemic.  Those put forward to the scheme will have access to support to get them back into employment including specialist advice on how to get into growing sectors, help with CVs and interview coaching.  

New guidance was also published on 10 September for employers considering or already running their own coronavirus testing programmes for staff.  The guidance - Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing: guidance for employers and third-party healthcare providers - sets out the legal obligations and best practice to follow, aiming to make the programmes as reliable and effective as possible. 

The Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance (applicable in England only) has had a number of amendments made. Key changes relate to the "rule of six", strengthening guidance on track and trace, a new section in each document highlighting "priority actions" and working from home.

New guidance has also been issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission calling on retailers to do more to help disabled customers during the pandemic.  It sets out four steps for retailers to follow to ensure they are making reasonable adjustments for customers and has been sent to CEOs of supermarkets and retail consortiums.

In July, the House of Commons Petitions Select Committee published a report which included a recommendation that current family-friendly rights be extended to give parents extra support during the pandemic.  This included recommendations (1) that family friendly leave and pay be extended, (2) that greater protection from dismissal be created, (3) that employers obligations to pregnant employees be clarified, (4) that new rights to neonatal leave and pay be piloted in advance of their introduction in 2023 and (5) that the time limit for pregnant women and new parents to bring unfair dismissal claims be extended from three to six months.  The UK Government has now published its response which largely rejects the recommendations, although a response on the extension of tribunal time limits for bringing pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims is being considered by the Government Equalities Office.

News

The big new last month was the announcement of the Job Support Scheme. One thing which the UK Government will want to avoid with this scheme is the degree of both fraud and error in calculations that seems to have plagued the furlough scheme.  HMRC is reportedly writing to 3,000 companies per week who they believe may have wrongly claimed some of an estimated £3.5 billion of over payments.

However, HMRC figures also show that 80,433 UK employers have voluntarily returned £215 million in furlough payments that were not needed or claimed in error.

Recent figures on job losses related to the pandemic show well over 200,000 redundancies have been announced in recent months.  Unfortunately, a recent study by YouGov shows that more than a third of employers plan to make redundancies in the coming months too.  This increasing number is expected to add further pressure to employment tribunals who are already facing a 45,000 case backlog of claims. 

And finally, the CIPD has published a new report - Embedding new ways of working - based on a survey of over 1,000 employers.  The report reveals that employers saw a 28% rise in employee activity and 38% reported greater employee focus.  This went hand in hand with an improved work-life balance, witnessed by 68% of employers.