| HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
Jackie le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
Self-isolation Rule Changes FAQs
On 16 August, the rules on self-isolation were relaxed. Here, I look at what the changes are, answer some of the questions they have raised for employers and give some tips for communicating your expectations to staff.
Who is Now Exempt from Self-isolating?
Individuals will no longer be legally required to self-isolate if NHS Test and Trace identifies them as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid and one of the following applies:
- They are double vaccinated and had their second jab at least 2 weeks before the close contact.
- They are under the age of 18.
- They are unable to have the Covid vaccine for a medical reason.
Those who are exempt will be advised to take a PCR test. If they test positive, they will be legally obliged to self-isolate.
What Do Employees have to Tell Us?
These are the duties that apply:
- An employee who is contacted by NHS Test and Trace and told to self-isolate, or who has symptoms or a confirmed case of Covid-19, must notify you that they have to self-isolate.
- An employee who is contacted by NHS Test and Trace but told they are exempt from self-isolation is not obliged to inform you that they have been contacted. They can simply come into work as normal. However, Test and Trace will advise them to act cautiously, for example, by wearing a face covering indoors and avoiding contact with anyone who is clinically vulnerable.
- An employee who is ‘pinged’ by the Covid-19 app as a close contact is not obliged to inform you of this, even if they haven’t been double vaccinated. The app is a purely voluntary measure and self-isolation has never been a legal requirement if someone is pinged. However, self-isolation does remain strongly advised for those who have not been double vaccinated and are 18 or over.
What if Someone Who is Fully Vaccinated Wants to Self-isolate?
It’s difficult to force someone to tell you their vaccination status (as discussed in our previous Update). However, an employee may volunteer this information and the fact that they’ve been identified as a close contact of a positive case. They may be worried about potentially spreading the virus and say they wish to self-isolate.
In this situation, the employee isn’t entitled to statutory sick pay or normal pay because they’re choosing not to work. However, disciplining them as absent without leave is likely to be heavy handed.
You might suggest they take daily lateral flow tests until their PCR test result comes back and try to persuade them to return if these are negative. You could also boost your workplace safety measures such as social distancing. In the worst case, you could tell the person they will have to take the time off as holiday or unpaid leave (if they can’t work from home), again until they receive their PCR test result.
If they have Covid symptoms, then they should self-isolate.
What if We Want Someone to Self-isolate as Precaution?
Again, someone may volunteer the information that they are double-vaccinated and have received an NHS Test and Trace notification. You might feel it’s safer for them to stay home until their PCR test result comes through, although they’re not legally required to do so. If you compel someone to not to work, you will have to pay them as normal. As above, an alternative approach would be to ask the person to take a lateral flow test before coming in and to review your workplace health and safety measures.
Top Tips
- Review your Covid risk assessment and implement any additional safeguards as necessary.
- Inform employees of what the new self-isolation rules are and respond to any concerns.
- Make clear that employees who fail to self-isolate in breach of the rules could face disciplinary action, which may include dismissal. They could also face a £1,000 fine, rising to £10,000 for repeated breaches.
- Encourage staff to take a PCR test if they are exempt from self-isolation but are identified as a close contact by either Test and Trace or the Covid-19 app. You could also ask them to take daily lateral flow tests until the result comes through and to take extra care while around colleagues and customers. However, forcing them to get tested as a condition of returning to work, to tell you the result or to tell you they’ve been identified as a close contact could be risky.
| HEALTH & SAFETY
Paul Smith, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Risk Assessment & Compliance; Editorial Board Member, Health & Safety Adviser |
Ventilation: Follow the Latest Advice to Minimise Covid Spread
Employers have long been subject to specific legal duties to ensure their workplaces are adequately ventilated, but with the pandemic, ensuring adequate ventilation has become much more urgent. Here we set out the latest guidance from the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and also reveal several key points their new video fails to mention.
As the pandemic has progressed, it’s been recognised that there are two main routes by which the virus spreads: direct contact with an infectious person or contaminated surface, and transmission through the air when droplets (possibly very tiny) from an infected person are inhaled by others.
The jury is still out on whether air transmission is the dominant route, but if it is, it makes sense to focus on indoor spaces, especially those used by lots of people, and on ventilation. The bottom line: the more transmission takes place through the air, the more important ventilation becomes within your armoury of Covid-secure precautions.
The HSE says that ventilation can be by natural and mechanical means. But either way, the key point is to maximise the quantity of fresh air let into the workplace. For this reason, equipment that simply moves air around without adding any fresh air (for example, fans, and air conditioning systems that don’t add fresh air) does not help prevent Covid spread, and could even make it worse. The new HSE video (view here) uses a simple animation to underline the key messages for employers and facilities managers:
- Coronavirus spreads through the air and can build up in badly-ventilated areas.
- Ventilation can be natural (doors or windows) or mechanical (ducts and fans).
- Walk round your workplace to identify areas that have no or poor ventilation: warning signs are a stuffy/musty smell – or simply the lack of any means of ventilation.
- Check also for areas that are especially busy and cramped (lots of people in a small space).
- CO2 (carbon dioxide) detectors can help identify areas with poor ventilation. They don’t solve the problem in themselves, but they can show that your existing ventilation isn’t working as well as it could.
- You can improve natural ventilation by opening doors and windows, and mechanical ventilation by ensuring it’s working properly.
- You should still take other Covid-secure precautions (such as regular handwashing, and sanitising touched surfaces) as identified in your risk assessment.
- If improving ventilation is a problem, consider air cleaning/filtration units.
- Include vehicles in your review; open their windows to maximise ventilation.
What the Video Does Not Say
The video does a great job of getting the key points across in just a couple of minutes but it does leave some important things unsaid. For a start, having lots of open doors and windows is simply not practical in many buildings. What’s more, staff are likely to resist this as a key precaution as we move into autumn and winter, especially if they are newly back in the office after homeworking or furlough.
There is also the cost factor. Increasing the amount of cold air brought into the building will inevitably increase your heating bill, even if your ventilation system allows it to be done. As for putting in new heating/ventilation systems, this is likely to be both massively disruptive and eye-wateringly expensive, as UK schools are currently discovering!
Action Points
- Carry out the simple walk round check as recommended above.
- Check with your landlord, facilities team or equivalent to ensure the current ventilation recommendations are being implemented. They should already be familiar with the latest advice, but if not, now’s the time to prompt them to act!
- Get expert advice to get the most out of your ventilation system, and before making any changes.
- Further best practice guidelines are available from CIBSE (the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) here.
- Record agreed actions as part of your wider Covid-secure risk assessment.
| PAYROLL
Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
Can You Reclaim SSP to Isolating Staff?
The ‘pingdemic’ has led to hundreds of thousands of people having to self-isolate, wreaking havoc on businesses, many of which have been forced to close due to a lack of available staff. While the self-isolation rules were relaxed from 16 August 2021 for those who have been double jabbed, many employers have already paid out significant sums in statutory sick pay (SSP) to staff who were required to self-isolate.
Under the normal statutory sick pay rules, an employer must meet the cost of any SSP paid to their staff. However, a rebate scheme is available allowing small employers to claim back a limited amount of SSP paid in respect of Coronavirus absences.
Entitlement when Self-isolating
The SSP rules were relaxed early in the pandemic, and special rules apply where an employee is unable to work because of coronavirus. The relaxed rules apply not only to employees who have coronavirus, but also to those who are required to self-isolate.
As an employer, you must pay SSP to an employee who is self-isolating because:
- They live with someone who has Covid-19 symptoms or who has tested positive for Covid-19.
- They have been notified by the NHS or public health or authorities that they have been in contact with someone with Covid-19.
- They have been advised to self-isolate before going into hospital for surgery.
A further relaxation in the rules means that, as long as the other qualifying conditions are met, you must pay SSP from the first day of absence where the absence is a ‘coronavirus absence’.
Consequently, where an employee is off work because they are self-isolating, you must pay them SSP for each day that they are absent. To qualify, the employee still needs to have average weekly earnings of at least £120 per week. The employee must also be sick or self-isolating for at least 4 days in a row, so that a period of incapacity for work (PIW) is formed. However, where the self-isolation period is 10 days, this condition will be met.
For 2021/22 the weekly rate of SSP is £96.35.
Rebate Scheme for Small Employers
The SSP rebate scheme enables small employers to claim back, up to certain limits, SSP paid to staff who are absent from work due to coronavirus. This includes SSP paid to staff who are self-isolating.
For the purposes of the scheme, an employer counts as a small employer if they had a PAYE payroll scheme that was created prior to 28 February 2020 and they had fewer than 250 employees on their payroll scheme at that date. If you have more than one payroll scheme, the 250 employee limit applies across all of your payrolls.
Employers who are not eligible to use the scheme, either because they had more than 250 employees on 28 February 2020 or because they started their payroll scheme after that date, must meet the cost of SSP paid to employers who are self-isolating.
Employers who are eligible to use the rebate scheme can claim back up to 2 weeks’ SSP per employee for coronavirus absences. Consequently, if the employee has more than one period of self-isolation, the employer may be unable to recoup all the SSP paid to the employee.
Claims for the SSP rebate can be made using the online claims service available on the Gov.uk website.