COVID-19 Update 22 August – 4 September 2020

HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW Jackie le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser Email: hr@agorabusiness.co.uk HR Adviser Online Resource Centre

 

Is it Time for Home Workers to Return to the Workplace?

A Government campaign coinciding with the reopening of schools is once again encouraging people working from home to return to the workplace. Things got off to a bad start when The Telegraph suggested the campaign would urge home workers to ‘go back to work or risk losing your job’, forcing the Government to deny this was the plan. It was further undermined by comments from the health secretary, Matt Hancock, that getting staff back to work is ‘a matter for employers’ and what’s important is whether employees ‘deliver’. So, with mixed messages again at the top of Government, who should you listen to?

My advice would be to listen to your own employees and to other businesses. According to a BBC study, of 50 major UK employers it spoke to, none planned to return all staff full-time to the office in the near future. The Times found that three quarters of Britain’s biggest employers are looking at a permanent shift to more flexible working.

And in a survey of 8,000 people by People Insight, only 2% said they didn’t want to work from home at all in the future, with half saying they would like to work from home 1 or 2 days a week and 31% preferring 3 or 4 days a week. More than three-quarters of the respondents believed they could work from home as or more effectively than in the office, although managing or coaching others or collaborating were reported as more difficult.

Key Points to Consider

When considering how many staff to bring back to the workplace and how soon, here are some points to think about:

1. Despite this campaign, the Government’s social distancing guidelines remain in place. You should only bring as many staff back as you can safely accommodate, thinking about pinch points like lifts, entrances and corridors.
2. What matters, as the health secretary said, is employees’ performance. If someone is working effectively from home and has a long commute by public transport, there’s no point in dragging them into work every day. However, if someone’s performance or mental health is suffering, or they’re working in crowded or cramped conditions, you should suggest they return.
3. Some tasks can’t be performed as effectively, or at all, from home. Employees themselves understand this, with survey after survey showing most want a balance between meeting up with colleagues and working from home. When you judge it’s safe, you can invite staff back part-time. However, a blanket policy of urging everyone to return makes little sense in terms of safety, wellbeing or productivity.
4. Employees have the right to make a flexible working request to work from home (once they have 26 weeks’ service). The Government seems to have forgotten this in its drive to encourage everyone to return to the workplace. Although you can refuse such requests on business grounds, this will be difficult if someone has been working productively from home for months.
5. The Telegraph quoted a Government source who suggested that home workers should get back to the office because they are ‘in the most vulnerable position’ if their employer is making redundancies in the next few weeks. Again, this demonstrates the Government’s shaky grasp of employment law. Clearly, you must use fair criteria when deciding who to make redundant, otherwise you could face unfair dismissal or discrimination claims. The safest approach will be to look at pre-lockdown performance so there’s a level playing field. If you do compare a remote worker against someone who has returned to the workplace, you’ll need to be able to show no bias has crept into your decision making.
6. Threatening staff with dismissal if they don’t return is also risky. Someone with health concerns or caring responsibilities might claim discrimination or a worker might claim they believed returning would put them in ‘serious and imminent danger’. The safer approach is to consult with employees, listen to their concerns and be flexible where possible.

 

Plan for the New Normal

The schools going back will allow many staff to return if that’s what your business requires. However, particularly as winter approaches, there’s a risk of new COVID-19 outbreaks and local lockdowns – plus it’s clear that many employees prefer some working from home. It may therefore be better to bolster your working from home processes and free up some of that expensive office space, rather than being as eager as the Government seems to be to return to the status quo.

 

PAYROLL Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser Email: pab@agorabusiness.co.uk Pay & Benefits Adviser Online Resource Centre

Discover the Latest Changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme   

As children return to school and office workers are encouraged to return to the office, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) starts to wind down. The scheme, which provided a lifetime to employers and employees during lockdown, is now in its penultimate month and employers are being asked to meet some more of the costs of keeping furloughed employees on the payroll.

Reduced Grant

Employers who have workers on furlough in September, either fully or partially, can continue to claim a grant for the hours that the employee is furloughed under the CJRS. However, the amount that they can claim is reduced from 80% of the employee’s usual pay to 70%. For September, the grant claim is subject to a cap of £2,187.50 per month. The cap is proportionately reduced for periods of less than 1 month.

No Change for Employees

Although the amount that the employer can claim back under the CJRS is reduced, the employee must continue to receive their minimum furlough pay. This is 80% of their wages for their furloughed hours up to a maximum of £2,500 per month, proportionately reduced where the employee is not fully furloughed for the whole month.

Where an employee is flexibly furloughed, they must be paid as usual by their employer for the hours that they work, but can be furloughed for the remainder of their usual hours. They must be paid minimum furlough pay for the unworked hours, at a rate of 80% of their usual pay subject to the monthly cap of £2,500 applied pro rata.

Employer Top Up Required

The employer must pay the employee the difference between the amount of the employee’s minimum furlough pay and the grant claimed under the CJRS. The required top up is 10% of the employee’s usual pay (or 10% of the cap, if less). This is equivalent to 10/80^th of the employee’s minimum furlough pay – the employer having claimed 70/80^th of the minimum furlough pay back from the Government under the scheme.

Employer to Pay Employer’s National Insurance and Pension Contributions

Payments made to furloughed employee’s remain liable to employee’s and employer’s National Insurance and, where relevant, pension contributions due under auto-enrolment. Prior to August, employers could claim back the associated employer’s National Insurance contributions and minimum pension contributions. However, for pay periods starting on or after 1 August 2020, employers must meet these costs themselves.

Example

An employee remains furloughed throughout September 2020.

The employee’s usual pay is £3,000 per month.

The employee’s minimum furlough pay is the lower of:

• 80% of wages – in this case £2,400;
• £2,500 – being the cap.

Thus, the employee’s minimum furlough pay for September is £2,400. This is the amount that the employer must pay the employee.

The employer can reclaim 70/80^th of the employee’s minimum furlough pay as a grant under the CJRS. The grant that can be claimed is therefore £2,100. This is equivalent to 70% of the employee’s pay (70% of £3,000 = £2,100). As this is less than £2,187.50, the cap does not apply.

So, for September, the employer must pay the employee £2,400 of which £2,100 is covered by the CJRS grant. The employer must fund the remaining £300 (minimum furlough pay of £2,400 less grant of £2,100), together with the employer’s National Insurance and minimum contributions on the payment to the employee of £2,400.

Further Changes from October

October is the last month for which a grant can be claimed under the CJRS. For October, the amount that the employer can claim is reduced to 60% of the employee’s pay, to a maximum of £1,875 per month. The employee continues to receive 80% of their usual pay, with the employer making up the shortfall.

 

HEALTH & SAFETY Paul Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Health & Safety Adviser Email: hsadviser@agorabusiness.co.uk Health & Safety Adviser Online Resource Centre View Paul’s COVID-Secure Risk Assessment video here.

Getting Back to the Office: ‘Fresh Air is Good’, so Recognise Ventilation’s Key Role 

The Government’s plea for office workers to return underlines its ongoing dilemma: on the one hand, it wants to avoid economic meltdown in the many town- and city-centre businesses that depend on nearby employers for their customers. On the other, as summer turns to autumn and winter follows not far behind, it dreads fresh coronavirus outbreaks, and the further economic damage that new lockdowns will no doubt trigger. As they look to reassure employees, many firms are now seeing the key role building ventilation can play in their ‘COVID-Secure’ safeguards. Here, we summarise what the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and ventilation specialists are recommending. ‘Maximise fresh air’ is their key message.  

HSE Guidance: Key Ventilation Principles

• Employers must, by law, ensure an adequate supply of fresh air in the workplace and this has not changed.
• Good ventilation can help reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus, so focus on improving general ventilation, preferably through fresh air or mechanical systems.
• Where possible, consider ways to maintain and increase the supply of fresh air, for example, by opening windows and doors (unless fire doors).
• Also consider if you can improve the circulation of outside air and prevent pockets of stagnant air in occupied spaces.
• You can do this by using ceiling or desk fans, provided good ventilation is maintained.
• If you use a centralised ventilation system that removes and circulates air to different rooms, turn off recirculation to maximise the use of fresh air.

 

CIBSE Guidelines for Maximising Ventilation

In addition, in its ventilation advice, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) recommends building occupiers:

• Run ventilation at higher volume flow rate; this may require you to use lower carbon dioxide (CO₂) set points for both mechanical ventilation and automated windows.
• Avoid recirculation/transfer of air from one room to another unless this is the only way of providing adequately high ventilation to occupied rooms.
• Note that recirculation of air within a single room is acceptable where complemented by an outdoor air supply. This enables a greater quantity of fresh air to be provided, gets more fresh air to all occupants, and can make the environment more comfortable.

 

CIBSE also makes practical suggestions for improving ventilation. 7 key points are:

1. Open windows, doors and vents to make the most of natural ventilation.
2. If your system is fitted with wind catchers, manually override the controls so that they stay in the ‘fully open’ position.
3. Programme mechanical ventilation to start sooner and stop later in the day – or run continuously.
4. Set systems to recirculate less (using more fresh air): this will have a cost implication especially in colder weather when more air heating will be needed.
5. Maintain existing duct cleaning, filter changes and other planned ventilation system maintenance Filters should be changed with the system turned off and technicians wearing PPE including gloves, eye protection, overalls and personal respiratory protection.
6. With ‘fan coil’ and ‘split air’ systems (e.g. air conditioners with ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ units connected by hoses), ensure there is a good flow of fresh air from the outside.
7. If you use LEV (local extract ventilation) to remove hazardous dusts and fumes from the worker’s breathing zone (unlikely in an office but common in industrial settings), check where the ‘make up air’ is coming from. Ideally, it should be fresh air from the outside.

 

Those Responsible for Buildings: Action Point

As ventilation is a technical area, it’s worth checking with your landlord, facilities team or equivalent that the appropriate adjustments have been made and other measures implemented. They should already be familiar with the recommendations above and be able to set out how they can be applied in practice to your buildings, but if not, now’s the time to prompt them to act. Record agreed actions as part of your wider COVID-Secure risk assessment.