COVID-19 | Lockdown Liberty
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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