| HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
Jackie le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
Should We Give Paid Time Off to Have the Covid Vaccine?
With the Government making good progress on its vaccination programme, the Covid jab will hopefully soon be rolled out to more and more working-age people. The TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady, has called for workers to receive paid time off to get vaccinated but what are your current obligations and what are the practical considerations when a worker asks to attend an appointment.
Is there a Right to Time Off to Get the Vaccine?
There’s no legal right to time off work to attend a routine medical appointment. There’s also no guidance from the Government yet on the issue of employees getting the vaccine in working time.
However, if you have a policy allowing time off for medical visits, you should follow this. Even if you don’t have a policy, in most cases it’s likely you’ll want to encourage employees to attend their appointment.
There’s now evidence suggesting that the Oxford vaccine lowers the risk of the individual transmitting the virus to other people. So, allowing an employee to attend their appointment will not only help protect that individual but should also reduce the spread of Covid to colleagues and customers or service users who haven’t yet been offered the jab.
Can We Ask Staff to Rearrange the Appointment?
It may not be easy to rearrange a vaccination appointment and it won’t normally be desirable to postpone having the jab. If an employee is working from home, they won’t usually need a lot of time off to attend a local appointment anyway. There may be more disruption if the employee is working from your premises (although it may become possible to have the jab at a pharmacy or vaccination centre close to the workplace or perhaps at the workplace itself). However, the benefits of getting vaccinated and reducing transmission of the virus in your workplace are likely to outweigh any temporary inconvenience.
In rare cases, you may need an employee to work at the time their vaccination is scheduled. If you have a policy in place, this may ask staff to try and book medical appointments outside of working hours or at the start or end of the day to minimise interruption. So, you could rely on this wording if necessary.
Tip: If you’re considering asking an employee to postpone their vaccination appointment, you should weigh up:
- The cost to the NHS of rescheduling.
- The risk to the employee and others if they catch the virus as a result of the delay.
- The potential damage to your reputation if it becomes known that you didn’t let employees get the jab.
Do We Have to Pay Staff to Attend the Appointment?
As above, there’s no right to time off for medical visits, whether paid or unpaid. However, if you have a policy which offers paid time off for medical appointments, you should follow this. If you don’t currently offer paid time off, you may wish to consider doing so for Covid vaccinations. Otherwise, staff may be deterred from getting immunised, which could lead to an outbreak in your workplace.
What About Staff in At-risk Groups?
Staff who are shielding are among the priority groups for vaccination. Many will be working from home and are likely to be disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. Some employees who are not in the shielding group but are clinically vulnerable may also count as disabled. You should give such staff time off to attend their appointment, as this may well be a reasonable adjustment. Failing to do so might give rise to a disability discrimination claim.
Tip: Getting the jab doesn’t, of course, mean that shielding staff and those working from home can immediately return to the workplace or that staff at your premises no longer need to social distance. The vaccine takes time to work and it’s also not clear yet how effective the vaccines are after a single dose. You will therefore need to wait for the Government to update its guidance on Covid restrictions.
| PAYROLL
Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
Names of Employers Using the CJRS Now Published
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) provides financial support to employers and employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, employers are able to claim a grant with which to pay employees who are fully or flexibly furloughed for their usual hours that they do not work. The grant is set at 80% of the employee’s usual pay for the unworked hours, subject to a cap which is equivalent to £2,500 a month. The grants are subject to National Insurance, PAYE and pension contributions, as for usual payments of salary and wages.
The scheme is easy to use and payments are made promptly. However, while this is to be applauded, it also opens the scheme up to abuse from employers who are less than scrupulous.
To deter fraudulent claims, a number of measures are in place. HMRC will check claims, and if a claim is found to be fraudulent or based on incorrect information, payments may be withheld, or may need to be repaid. In addition, for pay periods from 1 December 2020 onwards, HMRC are publishing the details of employers who have used the scheme.
How the CJRS Should be Used
Grants claimed under the CJRS should only ever be used to pay an employee’s wages, and the full amount claimed in respect of an employee must be paid over to that employer.
While under flexible furlough it is permissible for an employee to work fewer hours than normal and for a grant to be claimed for the employee’s normal hours that they do not work, claiming a grant for hours that the employee works is fraud, as is furloughing an employee and claiming a grant under the CJRS, but expecting the employee to continue to work while furloughed.
Employers’ Details Published
In the interests of transparency and to deter fraud, for claim periods from December 2020 onwards, HMRC will publish the following details of employers who make CJRS claims:
- The employer’s name.
- An indication of the value of the claim within a banded range.
- The company number for companies and limited liability partnerships.
Claims for a calendar month must be made by the 14th of the following month (or the next working day where this falls on a Friday). Details of claimants will be published monthly.
Details of employers who used the scheme in December were published on 26 January 2021 and are available on the Gov.uk website. The details published comprise a list of the employers using the scheme in December. The employer’s name is that attached to the qualifying PAYE scheme. The data published excludes employers:
- With a successful or pending application to have their details withheld.
- Details of employers who have paid back any grant claimed in full prior to the publication date of the list.
From February, the company number and an indication of the value of the claim within banded ranges will also be published. There are 14 bands, ranging from £1 to £10,000 to £100 million and above.
Furloughed employees are also able to view claims made for them via their personal tax accounts. This will enable an employee to see whether a claim has been made for them while they have still been working.
Exclusion from Publication
An employer will be able to ask HMRC not to publish details of their claims under the CJRS if they can provide evidence that doing so will result in a serious risk of violence or intimidation to the employer or to anyone living with them, or to an individual associated with the employer’s business, or to anyone living with them.
A request to be excluded from the list can be made online on the Gov.uk website here. No details will be published until a decision has been made and the employer has been informed of the outcome of that decision.
| HEALTH & SAFETY
Paul Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Health & Safety Adviser |
Covid-Secure: What Does it Mean for Your Sales Reps, Field Engineers and Installers?
At the moment we have unprecedented numbers of people working at home, in line with the requirement that people should do so unless it is impossible. But, where does this leave people such as sales reps and field support staff who typically work from home but need to visit customers’ sites in order to carry out their role? We set out our practical tips.
We know this is an issue: some readers have even had workers stopped by the police and asked to explain why they are not at home! So, if your Covid-secure precautions have so far focused on those who normally work at your premises, this is a good moment to consider field workers.
The first step is to restrict their visits to those that are essential. For example, sales conversations that have traditionally involved a face-to-face customer visit should now be done by phone or using an online meeting platform such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet. However, if the rep needs to measure up for a new installation or an engineer needs to service equipment, their visits would be justified.
Where people are necessarily out on the road, equip them to meet a police challenge by showing that their trip is essential. There is an important distinction here: the individual does not need to prove they are a ‘key worker’ whose work is essential. They do, though, need to be ready to show that their visit is essential to their work, whatever their work happens to be. Some firms are now issuing fieldworkers with a letter to help. A model wording is given below:
Wording for a Sales Rep, Engineer or other Field Worker’s Letter
On headed paper
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
This is to confirm that the bearer is employed by/working for [insert the name of your organisation] and is carrying out essential business on our behalf as a [insert job role].
We are aware of the current rules that people must work at home whenever possible, but the nature of this person’s work is such that homeworking is not an option.
When carrying out work, we follow the government’s recommended precautions to ensure it is as ‘Covid-secure’ as possible. This includes minimising face-to-face contacts, observing social distancing and frequent handwashing. Our workers carry sanitiser and have face coverings to be used when required.
All employees have been advised that they must not attend for work if they have Covid symptoms, have tested positive or need to self-isolate under the NHS guidelines.
Signed:
Director, Head of Department or HR Manager
Key Messages for Your Field Workers
Anyone working in the field is fully covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in just the same way as an office-, factory- or site-based worker. This means they have a legal right to ‘information, instruction and training’ and in the current circumstances, complying means giving them clear instructions on what ‘Covid-secure’ means for them. The key points to cover are:
- Don’t visit in person unless it is absolutely essential.
- If you carry out work in people’s homes, you must read and follow the guidance at: tinyurl.com/177eszp5
- In commercial premises, always sign in to make sure your visit is recorded in case the customer later needs to give your details to NHS Test and Trace.
- Always ask the customer (or your contact) what their safeguards are, and be ready to comply.
- Sanitise your hands before and after each visit.
- Observe social distancing, ideally staying 2m from other people at all times.
- Be ready to wear a face covering if asked to do so.
Also remind field workers they should not go to work (include visiting customers) if they have symptoms, have tested positive or are self-isolating for any other reason (e.g. they have been told to do so by NHS Test and Trace).
In line with this, it’s also well worth making sure all your own visitors are signed in ¾ and told what you expect of them in terms of Covid-secure while they are on your site.