At long last, we have further details on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This has come out of GOV.UK overnight and provides some much welcomed detail. This update looks at the further information that has been provided and some potentially tricky areas for employers who are looking at using the Scheme. To read the full
The Coronavirus Act 2020 has now been passed by Parliament in the UK. The Emergency Volunteering Leave Scheme provides for employees and workers to take time off work to work as emergency volunteers. This note looks at the Scheme, the obligations an employer owes to staff who wish to volunteer, and some likely tricky issues
The UK Government has posted a link to the Coronavirus Business Support page.
There is limited further information on the job furlough Scheme, other than that they hope to have it up and running by the end of April 2020. To access the link to the furlough Scheme, please click here.
On 20 March, the UK Government announced a series of wide-ranging measures to assist businesses and employees through the COVID-19 crisis, including a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”) (see the Chancellor’s speech here). Whilst details of the Scheme are sparse at this stage, we set out below answers to key questions our clients
This is clearly going to be front and centre of many employers’ thinking, given the news on Wednesday 18 March from the United Kingdom that schools are to close indefinitely for all but key workers and “the most vulnerable”. How are employees expected to combine new childcare duties with continuing to work either from home
The question of whether staff have a right to know if a colleague has become infected with the virus brings two separate duties into conflict. On the one hand, the employer owes a duty to take reasonable care of its employees’ health. On the other hand medical information is sensitive personal data and as such
As part of the Government’s emergency coronavirus legislation, prime minister Boris Johnson has announced that workers who self-isolate shall be entitled to statutory sick pay from their first day (rather than their fourth day) of absence from work. It is understood that this will be a temporary measure only.
Given the many challenges presented by