Italy has extended its emergency coronavirus measures across the country. All sporting events have been suspended and universities and schools are shut until 3rd April. Only those with a valid work or family reason that cannot be postponed will be allowed to travel.
How should UK employers prepare for a potential coronavirus lockdown?
Preparations
With the situation changing rapidly, many UK employers are thinking about their contingency plans if similar restrictions are imposed in the UK and we have seen an increase in enquiries about this.
UK employers need to anticipate having a proportion of their workforce off sick (i.e. too unwell to work), a proportion of their workforce taking measures to self-isolate as well as the potential for office and school shutdowns.
Where appropriate, employers need to consider whether they have the infrastructure in place to enable homeworking. This will require consideration of IT provision but also HR policies around working from home, removing IT equipment from the office and using personal devices for work. Employers without a policy framework would be well advised to ensure this in place as soon as possible.
Many existing policies which deal with flexible working and working from home will not have been drafted with an eye to sustained periods of remote working such as we might encounter here, so it’s worthwhile reviewing these policies and updating them to deal with the scenarios that employers might be facing.
Policies and guidance also need to deal with possible shutdowns of childcare provision and schools as this will have a significant impact on working parents.
It is worth noting that earlier today, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced, along with other measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak, that the Government will reimburse small businesses (those who have less than 250 employees) any Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) they have to pay to their workers for the first 14 days of illness.
Communications
In the event of a work place shutdown, communication will be key and employers will need to communicate expectations, new measures and policy updates to all staff and will also need to ensure they have the means to continue to communicate with staff during any absence from work or should the work place shutdown for a period of time.
How we can help
Laura Kearsley is a Partner in our expert Employment Law team.
At Nelsons, we can help employers prepare for anticipated developments and provide or check and update policies, guidance and communications with employees to make sure that employers strike the right balance between measures to protect their organisation/business and any provisions to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
For more information on our tailored policies for employers, including homeworking, please contact our team in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
The homeworking policy, which is tailored to each organisation and designed to fit with existing policies and handbooks, is available for a fixed fee of £350 + VAT.