ADVICE
COVID-19
Employers within rights to warn staff holidaying in quarantined areas of disciplinary action
E
mployers are well within their rights to threaten staff with disciplinary action if they decide to go on holiday to a country knowing they’ll have to self-isolate on their return. As of August 20, if people are coming back from Croatia, Austria, and Trinidad & Tobago, they must self-isolate for 14 days, while the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Jamaica were added to the list a week later. Complicating things is that individual nations of the UK are now bringing in different rules for different overseas places – especially the Greek islands – at different times and it seems to be changing every few days, often at a moment’s notice. Car Dealer has been made aware of some firms telling staff that if they go ahead with a holiday to a country on the quarantine list they face disciplinary action when they return. Employment expert Kiril Moskovchuk, from motor trade legal specialists Lawgistics, said he thinks dealerships are within their rights to warn staff they face serious conversations when they return if they haven’t cleared it beforehand. ‘I would say if the employee knowingly goes to a place subject to quarantine requirements and makes no efforts to resolve this issue with the employer beforehand, it will probably lay grounds for a warning.’ Colleague and solicitor Nona Bowkis said there could be rare instances where it may be appropriate if the employee was abusing the system. However, if the quarantine was announced after they’d left the UK, there was little that people could do. She said bosses and employees should work together in these cases to find a solution, such as home-working. ‘Employees could take extra annual leave, unpaid leave or, potentially, the employer could pay SSP,’ she added. ‘There is no one-size-fits-all employers should take Car dealer new strip ad approach, Revised and 4/4/18 12:01 Page 1 advice.’
Kiril Moskovchuk The quarantine rules here are correct at the time the page was produced but may change. For the latest UK updates, visit here for England, here for Wales, here for Scotland, and here for Northern Ireland.
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If the employee makes no efforts to resolve this issue beforehand, it will probably lay grounds for a warning.
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