Company NewsCovid-19

COVID-19 Changes

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 21 February, changes to Covid-19 arrangements will be made – the following is a summary of changes and their potential impact on employers.

The Changes

On 21 February, guidance for those in education and childcare settings to test twice a week was revoked.

From 24 February, employees will no longer be required to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19, or if they have been in close contact, regardless of their vaccination status.

Contact tracing will stop, and those who have been in close contact will no longer be advised to isolate or take daily tests.

From 24 March the special provisions for SSP for those absent from work because of Covid-19 will be removed, meaning someone will have to be not fit to work in order to be entitled to SSP, and the usual three-day waiting period will apply.

From 1 April the ‘Working Safely’ guidance will be removed and general public health guidance will be issued instead.

Routine testing, and access to free testing for most, will be removed.

What steps should I take?

  • It is sensible to keep up any Covid-19 health and safety measures you have in place currently, such as social distancing, screens, one-way systems, masks and sanitising. These will help mitigate the impact of an increase in Covid-19 in the workplace.
  • Continue to encourage vaccination if you have staff who are still not fully vaccinated.
  • Consider purchasing testing kits for staff, to reduce the problem of lack of testing leading to unknowing infection and spreading.
  • Consider what your policy will be if someone tests positive, in terms of working from home or requiring them not to attend.
  • Consider what your stance will be on pay for those with Covid-19 or isolating, either through their own choice or through your requirement to do so. Pay arrangements on the more generous side are clearly likely to increase the chances of someone informing you if they have tested positive, and thereby enabling you to reduce the risk to others.
  • Consider what position you will take with those who are reluctant to attend the workplace. Hearing their concerns, taking whatever steps you can to address them and taking into account any personal circumstances will remain the right thing to do, as it is now, but the outcome of those discussions may be different as the new non-measures come into force.

Can I require people to stay at home anyway, even if they are physically fit?

You could implement workplace rules regarding Covid-19 (or indeed any other infectious diseases), requiring someone who becomes aware they are positive to stay at home, either working from home or not working at all if they cannot work from home. It is unlikely that a requirement to work from home or stay at home isolating if positive could be argued as being unreasonable unless there is a significant detriment (see what happens about pay, below).

What happens about pay?

If someone is physically fit to work and is ready and willing to do so, but you require them to stay at home and they cannot do their job from home, you will need to pay them in full. If someone is off work with Covid-19 symptoms because they are not fit for work, you no longer have to pay them SSP from day one, although there is nothing stopping you from doing so.

Similarly, if someone is asymptomatic but has tested positive and wants to self-isolate in order to protect others, although they are no longer entitled to SP, you could opt to pay them the equivalent anyway, or indeed more.

What practical risks are there?

For many small employers, an increase in those attending the workplace with Covid-19 clearly represents a risk to the business, as an outbreak amongst a team could jeopardise the organisation’s ability to continue functioning effectively.
Employees refusing to attend the workplace because of concerns also represents a practical risk in terms of getting the work done and the management time spent dealing with it.

What legal risks are there for my business?

You still have a duty of care and a requirement to take measures to assess and reduce risks to your workers. A worker could argue that if you allow someone with Covid-19 to attend the workplace, you are jeopardising colleagues’ health and safety.

Options of disciplining someone for refusing to attend, or even dismissing them, do come with a risk of claims.

However, as government advice is that it’s fine for someone to attend work if they have tested positive and not have to self-isolate, it will be much more difficult for someone to argue that you’ve endangered them by allowing it, as long as you are continuing to conduct risk assessments and mitigate health and safety risks as normal.

Bottom line

You’ll have more people in the workplace with Covid-19. Either knowingly – they have tested positive but feel ok and don’t have to self-isolate and soon won’t be entitled to SSP anyway, so come in, or unknowingly – they have Covid-19 but because of a lack of access to testing (or because household members are no longer required to test regularly), they are unaware and still attend work.

You may also have an increase in employees being concerned about attending the workplace – this has been an issue already for many employers bringing people back in after lockdowns, either full time or on a hybrid arrangement, but the changes are likely to increase the problem.

Tags: Company News, Covid-19

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