| HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
Jackie le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
Carrot and Stick: Understand the Updated Self-isolation Rules
Last week, the Government announced tighter restrictions intended to hold back a second wave of COVID-19 and its plans for reducing the financial impact of the crisis on businesses and workers. In the flurry of announcements, you may have missed an important piece of legislation which could lead to penalties for both you and your staff if they come into work when they should be self-isolating. Along with this ‘stick’, the Government has introduced a ‘carrot’ in the form of self-isolation payments for staff on low incomes. Here, we look at both developments.
Fines for Permitting Workers to Evade Self-isolation
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation) (England) Regulations 2020 were made on 26 September and came into effect from midnight on 28 September. These:
- Make it an offence for an employer in England to knowingly permit a worker to attend work for any reason connected to their work when they should be self-isolating.
- Oblige workers to inform their employer that they are self-isolating and what the start and end dates of the self-isolation period are. They must tell you ‘as soon as reasonably practicable’ and before they are next due to work.
Businesses, directors or managers and workers who breach the regulations could be fined. Penalties start at £1,000 but can be as high as £10,000 for repeated breaches or breaches involving multiple workers.
Employees who breach self-isolation will usually commit a criminal offence. The Government will be stepping up enforcement, making it more likely that breaches will be identified. For example, Test and Trace call handlers will increase contact with those who should be self-isolating and the police may check compliance.
The regulations apply in any of these situations:
- A worker (including an agency worker) has tested positive.
- A member of the worker’s household has tested positive.
- The Test and Trace service has told a worker to self-isolate.
However, they don’t apply if the worker has received a notification via the new contact tracing app that they have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19. Presumably, this is because the threat of fines and losing pay would deter people from downloading the app.
Similar rules are expected to be implemented in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in due course.
Key Points to Take Away
These new rules mean that:
- If you know a worker should be self-isolating, you must not allow them to work unless they can do so from home. They should not attend the workplace or travel for work, for example to customers’ premises or service users’ homes.
- If a worker’s colleague or another source tells you they should be self-isolating, if the worker lets something slip that arouses your suspicions or if they appear to have Covid symptoms, you should investigate. Turning a blind eye is likely to count as knowing that a worker is breaching the rules.
- If you discover a worker has come into work when they should be self-isolating, you can dismiss them for breaking the law (after following a fair procedure, of course).
- It would be advisable to tell workers:
- That they are legally obliged to inform you if they have to self-isolate.
- What consequences they could face if they come into work when they should be self-isolating (a fine, criminal record and dismissal).
- Whether working from home will be an option during self-isolation.
- What pay they will receive during self-isolation (see next point).
New Self-isolation Payment
Individuals who have to self-isolate are eligible for statutory sick pay if they are classed as an ‘employee’ and earn an average of at least £120 a week.
They may also qualify for a £500 ‘Test and Trace support payment’ if they:
- Have received a notification from NHS Test and Trace telling them to self-isolate for 10 days (if they have tested positive or have symptoms) or 14 days (if a household member has tested positive or has symptoms).
- Are employed or self-employed.
- Can’t work from home and will lose income as a result.
- Are receiving benefits (universal credit, working tax credit, income-based employment and support allowance, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income support, housing benefit and/or pension credit).
- Make a claim within 14 days of the last day of their self-isolation.
- Provide evidence including their Test and Trace notification, bank statements and proof of employment.
Local authorities are aiming to get the schemes for making these payments in place by 12 October. Those who self-isolate from 28 September will receive a backdated payment once their local scheme is up and running. This payment will be taxable at a later date. The scheme will run until 31 January 2021.
Key Points to Take Away
This payment will give some workers an incentive to stay away from work if they are supposed to be self-isolating. However, only those on benefits qualify. As an added deterrent, you should therefore make clear what sanctions workers will face if they break the rules. You should also consider whether you can afford to pay employees their normal wages during self-isolation if they can’t work from home.
| PAYROLL
Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
Job Support Scheme Unveiled
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, presented his Winter Economy Plan on 24 September, unveiling the successor to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – the Job Support Scheme. The scheme will open on 1 November 2020 and run for 6 months. Support under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme comes to an end on 31 October 2020.
Nature of the Job Support Scheme
The Job Support Scheme aims to help protect viable jobs in businesses which will face lower demand over the winter months as a result of Covid-19. To help keep employees attached to the business, the scheme will provide a grant to cover some of the shortfall in the employee’s wages where the employee works fewer hours.
To qualify for a grant, the employee must work at least one-third of their usual hours and be paid for those hours by the employer. The employee must be paid their usual contracted rate for hours worked.
For the hours that the employee does not work, the employer must pay the employee for a third of those hours and the Government will provide a grant for a third of those hours. The Government contribution is capped at £697.92 per month. The scheme will enable employees to earn at least 77% of their usual pay (subject to the operation of the Government cap). Depending on the hours worked by the employee, the Government will pay up to 22% of the employee’s pay (subject to the cap).
After the first 3 months of the scheme, the Government will consider whether to increase the minimum working hours above one-third of the employee’s usual hours.
Employers are able to claim a grant under the scheme and also a Job Retention Bonus, as long as the associated conditions are met.
Large employers will have to meet a financial assessment test to use the scheme and will only be able to do so where their turnover is lower than it was prior to experiencing Covid-related difficulties. Small- and medium-sized businesses will not be subject to a financial assessment.
Eligible Employees
To be eligible for the wage subsidy, an employee must be on their employer’s payroll by 23 September 2020 and an RTI submission made in respect of that employee on or before that date. Where employees are paid monthly, in reality, this may mean that the employee had to be on the payroll by the time of the August pay run. Those who join before 23 September 2020 but who have not been paid by that date will not qualify.
The employee must work at least one-third of their usual hours.
Employees do not need to stick to the same working pattern each month and cycle on and off the scheme. However, a grant can only be claimed in respect of periods of reduced hours that last at least 7 days.
Employers must agree the reduced working hours with employees and amend their employment contract. Employees must be notified of the changes in writing.
Employee do not need to have been furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme to be eligible for the new grant.
Employer Remains Liable for Employer’s NIC and Pension Contributions
The grant will cover one-third of the employee’s usual wages for hours not worked, as long as the minimum working requirement is met. The employee’s usual pay is used to calculate the grant, rather than reduced pay that the employee may have received while furloughed.
As for usual payments of wages and salary, payments made to the employee which are covered by the grant will be liable to tax, National Insurance and pension contributions due under auto-enrolment. The employer will need to meet the cost of the associated employer’s National Insurance and employer minimum pension contributions – these cannot be reclaimed under the scheme.
Claims
The grant will be paid in arrears. Employers will be able to claim online from December 2020. Payments will be made on a monthly basis.
A claim can only be submitted after payment has been made to the employee and that payment has been reported to HMRC via RTI.
HMRC to Check Claims
HMRC will check grants claimed under the scheme and will withhold payment if claims are found to be fraudulent or based on incorrect information. Grants can only be used to reimburse payments made to employees. It is HMRC’s intention to notify employees directly of details of grants claimed.
Cost to the Employer
The Government support comes at a cost. The employer will need to pay the employee for hours that they do not work. As grant claims are made in arrears, the employer must also pay the employee initially for the portion of the wages covered by the grant, before claiming it back from the Government. Employers must also meet the associated employer’s National Insurance and employer pension contributions, both on the grant and wages paid to employees for hours not worked. This cost may be too high.
The following table, taken from the Government factsheet, shows the cost to the employer and the Government depending on the hours worked, and also the impact on the pay received by the employee.
| Job Support Scheme – Costs to the Employer | |||||
| Hours Employee Worked | 33% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 70% |
| Hours Employee Not Worked | 67% | 60% | 50% | 40% | 30% |
| Employee Earnings (% of normal) | 78% | 80% | 83% | 87% | 90% |
| Gov’t Grant (% of normal wages) | 22% | 20% | 17% | 13% | 10% |
| Employer cost (% of normal wages) | 55% | 60% | 67% | 73% | 80% |
| HEALTH & SAFETY
Paul Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Health & Safety Adviser |
Get the Hygiene Basics Right for a Covid-secure Workplace
As a business professional, you have to keep up to date with a lot. This is certainly true at the moment, with the rapidly changing landscape of work during COVID-19. In its most recent announcement, the Government has returned to the concept of ‘Work from Home if you can’. As part of the current strategy to help contain the virus, office workers who can work effectively from home should do so over the winter.
This should be a consultative process. Where an employer, in consultation with their employee, judges that an employee can carry out their normal duties from home, then they should do so.
Of course, not all work (and indeed not all office-based work) can be carried out from home, so many employees must go into the workplace. And some public sector employees working in essential services, including education settings, should continue to go into work where necessary.
Infection Control – Back to Basics
In order to keep those in the workplace safe, you must implement the Government’s COVID-secure guidelines. Although there are several facets to this (including social distancing, face coverings, etc.), the basics centre on two simple aspects of infection control, namely: handwashing and surface cleaning. Here, we focus on effective handwashing.
It is a fact that even where soap is not available in more primitive environments, simply washing your hands in clean water substantially reduces the transmission of disease. When we add soap to the equation, significantly more particles, both physical and micro-biological, are lifted off the skin and carried away by the water. Soap can also have a detrimental effect on some micro-organisms’ ability to attach and to defend themselves.
The ‘Bare’ Necessities
Important factors for the success of this method of infection control are the education and self-discipline of individuals and the provision of adequate facilities. Self-discipline can be reinforced by raising awareness, training and peer pressure.
Hand washing should be frequent and especially after using the toilet, after handling raw foods, after coughing or sneezing, after touching the nose or mouth, whenever the hands become dirty and before handling ready-to-eat food.
Facilities should include adequate hand washbasins with suitable and sufficient water supply. Ideally, taps should be of a non-touch type. Liquid soap is safer than bar soap which can become contaminated. Hand drying facilities should not cause cross-contamination, such as disposable paper towels. Hand sanitisers should really be used only to supplement and to complement handwashing.
Keep it Clean and Clear
Ensure your messages to your workers clean and clear. Keep the workplace hygienic and ask workers to keep their hands clean. Follow the COVID-secure guidelines and keep the precautions in your workplace under review.