Annual leave: Quarantine, carry over and other complex Covid-19 holiday issues

Alan Lewis and Caroline Glacken consider the issues surrounding annual leave that have been raised by the government’s response to Covid-19 ‘If employers have not been actively managing annual leave, they are likely to find themselves faced with requests to carry over leave at the end of the leave year.’ The recent chaos caused by …
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Legal news: Employment update

Jo Broadbent rounds up recent developments affecting employers and their advisers ‘The Department of Health and Social Care has published guidance on test and trace requirements for sectors where there is a higher risk of transmission of Covid-19.’ Third Treasury Direction creates fresh confusion The Treasury published the third Direction on the Coronavirus Job Retention …
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Health and safety: Covid-19 and serious and imminent danger – a new dawn in employee litigation?

Lee Harding and William Mallin examine the extent of employees’ right to refuse to return to work because of the threat posed by the coronavirus ‘An employee’s belief that they should not be exposed to any danger whatsoever will clearly not be reasonable. Tribunals do not expect employers to eradicate risk, only to reduce the …
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Coronavirus: Notice pay during furlough: what’s allowed?

Colin Leckey and David Hopper examine the uncertain position on employers’ ability to serve notice on employees during furlough and the rules on calculating notice pay ‘Unlike similar schemes in other countries, the CJRS has never included a condition that employees for whom a furlough grant was claimed cannot subsequently be made redundant.’ The complexities …
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Coronavirus: Consulting with furloughed employees about redundancies and changing terms

Colin Leckey and David Hopper explore the challenges of consulting remotely and holding remote elections for employee representatives when staff are on furlough or working from home ‘Carrying out information and consultation obligations remotely has generally been regarded as permissible before the coronavirus pandemic and it is unlikely to be regarded as a problem in …
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Covid-19: Key steps to ensure a safe return to work for shielding employees

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement that shielding employees can return to work from 1 August, Joanne Moseley looks at how employers can start to get their most vulnerable staff members back to work while reducing the risk of legal claims ‘Even if the employer has already re-opened, it should carry out an individual risk assessment …
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