COVID-19 Business, but not as we know it
Lockdown Liberty Employment law challenges
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COVID-19 Business, but not as we know it:
Lockdown Liberty
Employment law challenges As we slowly inch our way towards a brave new world post Covid-19 we set out below the employment law issues likely to face employers and employees in the coming months.
Nicholas Lakeland Partner nicholas.lakeland@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
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Working patterns and remote working Post lockdown many employers and employees perhaps reluctant to embrace remote working will have proved that the model works. Having established new working patterns both will have realised that working from home is as productive as it was whilst spending time in the office. This genie is now out of the bottle.
web meetings via Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype etc. Thought will have to be given as to how and when to bring employees physically together to reform bonds of comradeship as well as how to ensure employee engagement through regular, timely and informative employee communications. Employers should expect to receive and welcome more flexible working requests and the far sighted ones will invite these rather than waiting for the inevitable requests to flood in.
Whilst there has been a loss of close working relationships with colleagues, clients and customers may not have seen any
Contracts of employment will also be re-drafted to include
difference in service levels. Certainly IT teams have seen their
those clauses many employment lawyers considered
remote working processes severely tested and weaknesses will
somewhat old fashioned and outmoded permitting employers
have been identified which will require correcting.
to impose lay-offs or short-time working.
What employees have lost in comradeship they have gained in time saved in not having to commute to the office. The lockdown restrictions will only be lifted slowly and carefully and not all employees will be asked to work in their places of work at the same time as social distancing measures are implemented across all business sectors. All employers will be well advised to review their contracts of employment to allow for far more flexibility both in patterns and place of work. The measure of employee performance is going to shift much more to objective measures output rather than managerial observation of day-to-day employee performance. Soft skills so vital to helping create a team feeling and keeping organisations working smoothly will inevitably have to be re-engineered so as to work more effectively when holding
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Health and Safety
Furlough ends, re-structuring begins...
This issue will inevitably continue to be uppermost in the minds of employers concerned to ensure that no employee will accuse them of having needlessly exposed them to the possibility of catching Covid-19.
Businesses have already started adjusting to the new world. The travel and retail sectors (not those supplying food of course) have already had to face the realities that their businesses will not recover for many years to come. The two greatest costs to businesses are people and premises and both will be under careful scrutiny. Redundancy programmes have already started where more than 100 employees are to be made redundant since consultations need to start at least 45 days before the termination date. Redundancy programmes are already being planned and implemented in businesses who are only too acutely aware that post lockdown their business needs will be radically different.
The questions to be asked will be:
1. Does the employee have to travel to work at all and face the dangers of infection on a tube, train or bus journey? 2. What safety measures are to be taken when employees are in the office? Can the 2 metre social distancing measures be implemented? If not what is going to be considered reasonable? Regular hand washing will clearly be required but what about the wearing of masks? The science and the government can’t agree on
For other businesses the process is more likely to be a gradual
what is right so what is an employer to do?
one as they adopt a wait and see attitude. All businesses will have accumulated considerable levels of debt and will have
3. What other working pattens might employees be asked
no choice but to cut jobs or look to re-structure via Company
to work? Perhaps rotating employees' presence in the
Voluntary Arrangements or as a very last resort go into
place of work might be the answer or differing working
liquidation.
hours? Landlords will be faced with the acceleration of a move away 4. If employees are to be asked to regularly work at home
from bricks and mortar retailing and the prospect of even
it is important that employers' liability insurers are made
more empty shops; difficult choices will have to be made
aware of this and employers need to remember to carry
between writing off rent and service charges to help tenants
out specific home working risk assessments.
or seeing tenants cease trading leaving empty shops for years to come. Gradually the demand for office space will also
5. Mental health risk assessments will also become far
reduce as employees are encouraged to work from home.
more common as employers learn the lockdown lessons and seek to apply home working patterns on
All the scenarios and variants of them will play out in the next
employees.
months and years to come and advisors will have to strain
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every sinew to help clients through difficult and challenging times. Inevitably there will be winners and losers. The winners will learn the lessons of lockdown and seek to enter into constructive dialogue with all stakeholders, show flexibility, courage, new thinking and lots of imagination. The losers will be those who seek to ignore the lessons of the lockdown and try to pretend it never happened. We are well placed to assist all our clients to help them navigate this brave new world.
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Expertise
Employment Employment law has an impact on businesses and individuals alike. It is complex and mistakes can be costly and time-consuming. Our Employment team combines legal expertise with commercial acumen to provide our clients with practical solutions, not just information. We pride ourselves on the provision of timely and relevant advice; often our clients require that advice urgently. Our team of highly experienced and skilled employment lawyers offer a responsive, personable and practical approach based on a real understanding of our clients and their businesses and sectors. We act for both employers and employees and provide a partner-led service that ensures clients receive the appropriate depth of expertise, whilst ensuring clarity of cost and excellent service levels. As a result, our advice is cost-effective, commercially driven and always aimed at meeting our clients’ objectives.
Rumana Bennett
Victoria Brockley
David Buckle
Solicitor rumana.bennett@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Partner victoria.brockley@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Partner david.buckle@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Martin Donoghue
Ryan D'Souza
John Gavan
Consultant martin.donoghue@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Solicitor-Advocate ryan.dsouza@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Partner john.gavan@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Dimitri Iesini
Jennie Kreser
Nicholas Lakeland
Partner dimitri.iesini@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8081
Consultant jennie.kreser@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8037
Partner nicholas.lakeland@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
Dilini Loku Associate Partner dilini.loku@laytons.com +44 (0)20 7842 8000
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