Coronavirus Pandemic – General Advice, FAQs and Pay Guidance

With the total impacted in the UK rising by 67 to 273, we thought it would be useful to provide the latest guidance from ACAS, Public Health England and Foreign & Commonwealth Office on the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), to help you do the best for you and your team.

So far 23,240 tested were confirmed as negative and 273 were confirmed as positive. Two patients who tested positive have died, with the hotspots seen as Hertfordshire, Devon and Kensington & Chelsea.

The below is provided for guidance purposes only, based on the best information at this point in time, and you should seek out your HR Professional to confirm the best guidance for your specific circumstances.

Coronavirus advice for employers

As a general rule, employers should do the following:

Keep communication flowing. This is an ever-changing situation so it’s important to keep talking about the actions you are taking. Have an open-door policy for any concerns that employees may have.
Review and update all employee contact numbers and emergency contact details.
Know where your staff are travelling to and returning from. This applies to both business and holiday travel.
Remain current with government advice regarding self-isolation/quarantine requirements from each country. See above websites.
Advise employees experiencing symptoms, after possible contact, to remain at home and call 111 for advice in the first instance (rather than immediately go to their GP or hospital).
Managers should be informed of how to spot symptoms of Coronavirus, see above links.
Have a clear process to follow if someone is diagnosed with Coronavirus.
Ensure that you provide clean places for people to wash their hands with hot water and soap, and encourage your staff to do this regularly.
Think about protective resources. For example hand sanitisers/gel and tissues should all be made available. Non-alcoholic hand sanitiser might be preferable to some employees on religious or belief grounds, so it might be advisable to offer both. Current PHE guidance is that face masks are ineffective and are not recommended as a preventative measure.
Increase general cleaning routines for handrails, door handles etc.
Think about planned business travel and question whether it is essential.
Have a home working policy.
Have a business continuity plan.
Keep employees thinking pragmatically. Those who have laptops should take them home each night so they can continue to work if they are unable to come in.

FAQs

Q. With regard to staff travelling for their annual holiday – What do we do?

The employee needs to decide whether they intend to continue with the travel. If an employee travels to another country which requires quarantine upon return (i.e. they knowingly travel aware that quarantine will be required on their return), then inform them that the period of quarantine would be unpaid absence.
If an employee is required to be quarantined on their return on medical advice and are unable to attend work, then it is good practice to pay in line with your company sick pay policy.
If they choose to self-isolate but there are no guidelines or medical advice given to suggest that they should do so, then this is deemed as unpaid, unauthorised absence. It could be used for disciplinary purposes.

Q. A member of staff is travelling to an area that has been confirmed by the UK government as a risk to travel, and they must be quarantined for 14 days on return. Do we have to pay them for this absence?

The Government has announced that those employees who are quarantined or required to self-isolate for a period of time will be eligible to receive statutory sick pay from day one.

Q. A member of staff is travelling to an area that is a risk, but the UK government does not require them to be in quarantine unless they show symptoms. Our company has a policy saying that external visitors can’t attend site if they have travelled to one of those countries within the last 14 days. Can we have the same policy for employees?

Yes, but you must pay employees for the time off, as you are technically suspending them on health and safety grounds.

Q. Our employees travel a lot for business reasons to countries worldwide. Can we insist that they still travel?

If there is a travel restriction or guidance to not visit particular countries unless it is essential, then you would be putting the health and safety of your employees at risk if you insisted that they travel to that country. This may be deemed unreasonable behaviour on the part of the employer. We would not advise that you insist that they travel to such countries.
If there is no travel restriction and the country that they are visiting has no warnings, then you can insist that the employee travels as per the normal role. If they refused to do so, then you could take disciplinary action.

Q. There is a lot of speculation in the media that airports themselves are a place to catch Coronavirus. So our employees don’t want to travel at all, even though the destinations are safe. What do we do?

If the destination is a ‘safe’ one, then you can insist that they travel. You could offer to pay for items that would act as a protection against Coronavirus such as antibacterial hand gel, a supply of disposable gloves to wear in the airport and on the plane etc. to make the employee feel more comfortable with travelling. And remind the employee that the advice given is to regularly wash hands, use tissues and immediately put them in the bin etc.

Q. Our employees are starting to talk about refusing to come to the office because their colleagues may infect them. They would rather work from home or have the time off until Coronavirus passes. What do we do?

If an employee is not sick and has not been instructed to self-isolate or be quarantined, and they refuse to attend work, then this would be unauthorised absence and unpaid. They could be disciplined.
Our advice is to take a pragmatic approach. As situations like these happen so rarely, don’t be concerned about setting a precedent. If it’s possible for employees to work from home and they are feeling nervous, why not just let them work at home? If this isn’t possible (we understand that a lot of businesses do not have the technology to fulfil this), then reassure employees by having plenty of antibacterial hand-gel and soap available. Remind employees about hygiene standards in the office.
This is an ever-changing situation. So keep talking with your employees and keep an eye on the news and on guidance from the professional bodies that relate to your industry, particularly in cases concerning travel and the vulnerable.

Q. What do we do when an employee has booked time off for holiday, but their holiday is cancelled because of a situation outside of their control (e.g. flight cancellations or the destination country status means they are advised not to travel there)? Can the employee cancel their annual leave and take it again at another time?

This is at your discretion as an employer. It might be straight-forward for you to allow this with minimal business disruption. But you have no obligation to allow the cancellation. However, where possible we are sure most businesses will try to support employees in this situation.

Q. What do we do if an employee has returned from their holiday from a high-risk country, but there is no mandatory quarantine and no advice to self-isolate; they want to return to work, but their colleagues do not want them to come in?

If their colleagues refuse to attend work, this would be deemed unauthorised absence and potentially disciplinary action could be taken in line with your absence policy.
If an employee was pregnant or was in ill health, then you may try to allow them to work from home or in a restricted area to alleviate concerns.
If you ask the returning employee to refrain from work, then they are entitled to full pay.
You could suggest that they work from home if that’s easy for them to do.
You should provide plenty of antibacterial hand-gel, washing facilities and tissues to keep hygiene to a high standard in the workplace.

Q. How do we treat parents of children who are told by a GP they must self-isolate after returning from a school trip?

The parent doesn’t need to self-isolate, so this should be treated as any other childcare emergency and usual ‘time off for dependant’ rules apply.

Q. What if an employee comes in to work and I am concerned they have Coronavirus?

Follow official guidance, see links above to the PHE and other official websites.

Q. An employee has a current health problem, like diabetes, and says they do not wish to come to work with someone who has returned from an at-risk country but is not required to self-isolate. What do we do?

Ask them to contact their health professional, GP or call 111 for advice and follow that.

Q. We want to close our premises to deep clean. As this is to protect the health and safety of employees, do we have to pay them to stay away from the premises and not come to work?

Yes you must pay them because you are taking the decision to close the premises.
You could request employees work from home where possible.
If you give the appropriate notice (notice should be double the length of the holiday ( e.g. 1 day’s holiday requires 2 days’ notice, 2 weeks’ holiday requires 4 weeks’ notice) then you could insist employees use their holidays whilst the building is being deep cleaned. Providing that this does not contravene their contractual terms.
If you relocate to other premises for a period of time, and should it cost more for them to travel to the new premises, then you could pay travel expenses for the difference so that they can still work.

Q. We have started to receive notifications from clients and event venues that our events are being postponed. This will mean an immediate reduction in revenue which has a detrimental and severe impact on our cashflow. What options do we have?

You can consider short-term lay-offs. To do this you must either have an express term in their contract or get agreement through consultation. You would lay off staff on a temporary basis to avoid redundancy, safe in the knowledge that your business will improve again in the near future.
You could dismiss short-serving staff (employees with less than 2 years’ service) without going through redundancy consultations.
You could offer employees the opportunity to take unpaid leave.
You could insist employees take their holiday entitlement so that when you get busier again, your staff are there to support income generation rather than taking their holidays.
You could start consulting with your employees to reduce their hours for a period of time until this crisis passes.
If the effect turns out to be longer term you could consider redundancies.

Q. With growing worries about Coronavirus, if staff phone us to say that they are self-isolating, how can we check that this is legitimate?

Our advice is that, like any other situation, you trust your employees unless proven otherwise. If you have evidence of anything fraudulent then you can conduct an investigation. In this type of situation, as a rule, it would be difficult to prove that someone is misleading you about their symptoms or who they have been in contact with. If you have a suspicion and feel that you have evidence of any potential fraudulent action though.

Q. We have heard in the news that Boris Johnson has said we should pay statutory sick pay from day one instead of day four – what should we do?

See the official government announcement. At the time of writing this, the legislation has not yet been passed and we don’t know if this will apply to past absences.
Where employees self-isolate, or are in quarantine on the basis of medical advice, the government advice is that those employees should be treated as ‘sick’ and will be eligible to receive statutory sick pay once SSP legislation has changed.

Q. We offer company sick pay to all staff, but don’t think that we should pay full pay to someone who is well but in isolation or quarantine. What is your advice?

In these circumstances there is no legal obligation to pay company sick pay, just to pay SSP when the government changes the legislation, to anyone who is not unwell, however financial pressure may make staff attend work when they should not. This is an unusual situation and could cause significant financial risk to SME businesses.
Our advice is to tread carefully and be aware that this situation could impact more people, so consider the financial position if more employees were affected. An important aspect though is being consistent so that there is no perception of favouritism.

Q. What do we do if someone becomes ill at work and colleagues think it is Coronavirus?

If the individual has recently returned from an area affected by Coronavirus then they should follow the official guidelines which are as follows from ACAS:
– go to a room or area behind a closed door;
– get at least two metres away from other people;
– avoid touching anything;
– cough/sneeze into a tissue and put it in a bin (or use crook of elbow if no tissues are available);
– use a separate bathroom from others where possible; and
– the affected person should call 111 for advice.
If the advice indicates infection once the individual has left the premises make sure everywhere is cleaned thoroughly.
Don’t underestimate the fear that people have of Coronavirus – your employees may feel incredibly concerned so be careful not to dismiss those feelings.

Pay Guidance

As a small business you always have discretion to pay above the minimum we are setting out here.

Please bear in mind the possible impact of unpaid leave meaning staff choose not to follow their obligations on quarantine, and therefore are more likely to spread Coronavirus to others in your workforce.

Do I have to pay them if….?

They choose to self-isolate without medical advice?
– This would be deemed unpaid unauthorised absence.
They are instructed by a medical professional to self-isolate?
– The employee will be entitled to receive statutory sick pay from day one of absence when related to Coronavirus, when the SSP legislation changes.
They are in quarantine?
– The employee will be entitled to receive statutory sick pay from day one of absence when related to Coronavirus, when the SSP legislation changes.
They have no symptoms but they’ve just come back from an at-risk country and I don’t want them to come to work?
– If they can work from home then this should be arranged. But if not, this would be deemed suspension on health and safety grounds so you should pay them in full.
They have cold/flu symptoms and should be in quarantine, but they feel fit to work and I want them to work?
– Regardless of whether they feel fit to work, they must follow UK government advice. If this means that they must self-isolate, once the changes to SSP have been made then we advise you pay statutory sick pay from day one. If they turn up for work you can send them home on health and safety grounds and pay them in full.
They have cold/flu symptoms, are not in quarantine and I don’t want them to work?
– If they are saying they are fit to work despite their symptoms, and you don’t want them to attend work, then this would be deemed suspension on health and safety grounds, so you would pay them in full.

The above guidance is consistent with that released in the media, so should not be a surprise to your employees. Having said that, we are aware that employers will not want their employees to have any financial difficulties.

So we would encourage you to find ways of staff being able to work to enable them to receive full pay. For example, working from home. Or working on paper-based projects, if you don’t have the technical facility to allow them to work from home on computer equipment.

Black and White Accounting

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