Should Employers Consider Reintroducing Covid Measures Due To The Rise In Cases?

Due to the recent rise in Covid, the UK Government has said that it may have to reintroduce measures if the number of cases starts to have a detrimental impact on the NHS.

The rise in cases is thought to be primarily due to new fast-spreading sub-variants of Omicron, called BA.4 and BA.5. Dame Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency, has said that it is anticipated that there will be a rise in hospital admissions as a result of these new variants.

Whilst the Government has said that it may have to reintroduce restrictions to combat the spread of cases, it hasn’t as of yet. So should employers consider implementing their own measures now?

Should employers reintroduce Covid-19 measures?

The biggest issue for businesses will be that an increase in cases across their workforces will lead to high levels of staff absences, so it may be worth reintroducing measures sooner rather than later.

Research carried out by workplace health company, GoodShape, suggested that 3.8 million sickness days were taken in the UK in June for Covid-related reasons. According to GoodShape, the overall cost of these sickness days for UK employers was estimated to be around £544 million.

In contrast, almost half the number of sickness days (1.7 million) were thought to have been taken in May for Covid-related reasons and the cost of these sickness days to UK employers was £267 million.

What Covid-19 measures should I consider reintroducing for my staff members?

Lateral flow testing

One measure for employers to consider is the temporary rollout of regular lateral flow testing for its workers. If an employee has symptoms of Covid or receives a positive test then they should work from home if they can. If they are unable to work from home then they should talk to their employer about their options.

Whether a worker can work from home or cannot, employers must adopt a consistent approach to avoid any potential claims of discrimination.

Improve ventilation

There have been recent calls for businesses in various sectors to improve ventilation systems and risk management processes to limit the spread of Covid. All employers have a legal obligation to ensure that they provide a safe and secure environment for their employees to work.

Employers should already be providing staff members with guidance as to how they should be ventilating the workplace; whether through the use of natural ventilation such as open windows or through the use of mechanical ventilation such as fans.

It is, however, worth noting that any actions to improve ventilation in the workplace should not detrimentally impact other aspects of health and wellbeing or the overall safety and security of business premises.

Encourage more home-working

Businesses may want to consider adopting more sustainable hybrid work policies which might, for instance, include more home-working when there are increased Covid case numbers within the workforce.

That said, many employers may be reluctant to return to an across-the-board remote working approach again, having already navigated hybrid working and a return to the office for some time now.

Other measures

Further measures that employers could consider implementing include:

Comment

Implementing measures to combat the rise in Covid cases will vary from business to business and will largely depend on working practices and the sector in which the organisation operates. However, it is advisable for employers to start making these considerations now before it starts impacting their workforce.