Coronavirus

Stephen Simpson Editor's message: As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues, key issues for HR professionals include:

assessing the risks to, and safeguarding the health of, workers;
managing absence, including ensuring that workers who should be self-isolating do not attend work;
supporting workers who have carried on working through the crisis;
managing staff who are being asked to continue working from home;
encouraging staff to be vaccinated when the opportunity arises; and
making use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has been extended until 30 April 2021.

Now more than ever, HR professionals need to be adaptable and base their actions on the latest government advice, existing health and safety at work obligations, operational needs and financial realities, ongoing risk assessments, and how any safeguards put in place are working in practice.

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Stephen Simpson, principal employment law editor

New and updated

Type:

Quick reference

EU employment law developments

Updates include the launch of the Commission’s first-stage consultation on working conditions for platform workers.
Type:

Line manager briefings

Individual redundancies

Enhanced throughout to add practical guidance for line managers on the soft skills needed to manage a redundancy process.
Type:

Legal timetable

Employees on furlough scheme extension entitled to statutory payments based on normal pay

Regulations set out how employers must calculate a week's pay in relation to certain statutory termination payments paid to furloughed employees during the extended period of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) from 1 April 2021 to 30 April 2021.
Type:

Employment law manual

Basic pay and benefits

Updated to include revised advisory fuel rates, effective from 1 March 2021.
Date:

25 February 2021

Type:

Law reports

Coronavirus: Dismissal for refusing to wear face mask was fair

In Kubilius v Kent Foods Ltd, an employment tribunal held that the delivery driver was fairly dismissed when he refused to wear a face mask at a client site.
Date:

23 February 2021

Type:

News

Boris Johnson sets out roadmap for lockdown easing

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has outlined his roadmap for lifting coronavirus restrictions and the gradual reopening of the economy in England.
Type:

Policies and documents

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Workplace testing policy

A model HR policy to provide employees with information on your organisation's COVID-19 testing programme.
Type:

Employment law manual

Gender pay gap reporting

Updated to include information on the six-month extension on gender pay gap enforcement action, announced by the EHRC on 23 February 2021.
Date:

19 February 2021

Type:

Law reports

Coronavirus: Constructive dismissal after remote working request denied

In An Operations Coordinator v A Facilities Management Service Provider, the Workplace Relations Commission in Ireland found that a worker was constructively dismissed when she resigned after she raised concerns about safe working and her employer rejected her request to work remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.
Type:

Policies and documents

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Letter to arrange discussion with clinically extremely vulnerable employee about safe working

Updated to reflect the Government's announcement on 16 February about the expansion of shielding in England.

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HR and legal information and guidance relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19).

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