As an employer, you have a duty of care towards your employees and are required to take reasonable steps to protect their health and safety.
Government coronavirus action plan
This week the government released its Covid-19 action plan. The government plan comes in four stages:
- Containment: detecting early cases, following up close contacts, and preventing the disease taking hold in the UK for as long as possible
- Delay: slowing the spread in the UK and lowering the peak impact beyond the winter season
- Research: better understanding of the virus and actions to reduce its effect; diagnostics, drugs and vaccines; using evidence to inform the most effective care
- Mitigation: providing the best care possible for those who become ill. Supporting hospitals to maintain essential services and support for those in the community, with a view to reducing the overall impact of the disease.
Current advice notes the possibility that up to one fifth of employees may be absent from work during peak impact weeks and that Covid-19 could also come in multiple waves. We encourage you to make arrangements to ensure your business continuity during these times.
In the event of an outbreak
To support the action plan, the government has advised that the following steps may be taken:
- Schools could potentially be closed to minimise spread
- Employers may be encouraged to implement teams to work from home where ever possible
- Methods to reduce large-scale gatherings could be introduced
- Hospital worker shifts may be altered
- Hospital leavers or retirees may be called ‘back to duty’
Going forward, it is possible that further steps will be taken and emergency legislation will be passed.
Managing Sick Leave
Your usual sick leave and pay entitlements currently apply if someone has coronavirus, just like any other virus. This includes where the NHS 111 or a GP has advised an individual to self-isolate. Employers usually ask for a sick / fit -note where an absence goes beyond 7 days. This is not a statutory requirement and you should be flexible where self-isolation applies as the individual may not be able to return to the GP during that time.
Statutory Sick Pay to be payable from day 1 of an absence
The government announced yesterday that emergency legislation would be passed for the payment of statutory sick pay (SSP) to employees with the coronavirus. This will mean that affected people will receive SSP from day one, not day four, of their illness. No implementation date has yet been shared.
SSP is currently paid at a rate of £94.25 per week. This change appears to be temporary and will only apply during the coronavirus epidemic, after which sick pay may revert to the previous position.
What do I need to do?
Simple steps that every employer can take:
- keep your team updated on your plans and those actions being taken to reduce risks of exposure in the workplace
- make sure everyone’s contact numbers and emergency contact details are up to date
- make sure managers understand the symptoms of coronavirus and are clear on processes such as sickness reporting and sick pay
- remind everyone of sick reporting procedures
- make sure everyone knows the procedures in case someone in the workplace develops the virus
- make sure there are clean places to wash hands with hot water and soap, and encourage everyone to wash their hands regularly
- provide hand sanitiser and tissues for staff, and encourage them to use them
- consider protective face masks for people working in particularly vulnerable situations
- check Foreign Office advice before travelling abroad.
- consider your actions if an area becomes affected during an employee’s travel to the area
- consider how to manage your team member both abroad and on their return
- contact the Public Health England (PHE) health protection team if someone comes into work and is infected
- remember that you must not treat any employee differently because of their nationality, race or ethnicity.
Where someone becomes ill at work and could be infected
We advise the following steps, in line with ACAS advice. The individual should:
- stay at least 2 metres away from other people
- to a closed room, such as a sick bay, meeting room or office
- avoid touching anything
- cough or sneeze into a tissue and put it in a bin, or if they do not have tissues, cough and sneeze into the crook of their elbow
- use a separate bathroom from others, if possible
- use their own mobile phone to call either 111, for NHS advice or 999, if they’re seriously ill or injured or their life is at risk
Sending an employee home
If your team member isn’t sick but you decide to send them home, you need to continue to pay their usual wages. This might happen if someone has returned from an affected area and you ask them not to come in. Or where you have closed your premises temporarily to clean following an outbreak in the workplace. You can ask the individual to work from home if they are able to, or to carry out their duties at another site, providing the request is reasonable.
Employees needing time off
Your team members are entitled to take time off work in an unexpected event or emergency, to care for someone who depends on them. ‘Time off for dependents’ applies in this context, for example where their child’s school has closed or another dependant is sick or needs to go into isolation or to hospital. The amount of time off must be ‘reasonable’ for the situation. Two or three days off may be sufficient, and where more is needed you will need to consider other options, such as holiday.
Their right is to unpaid leave in these situations, but you usually have the discretion to pay depending on the contract or policies in place. We advise you to plan for a situation where, as noted above, up to one fifth of employees are affected.
Keeping up to date
Please note that this advice may be subject to change as the Government responds to events. For more information specifically for employers do visit the government website or get in touch.