HR Articles

There have been 53 updates to the Government's health and safety guidance on making workplaces “COVID-secure” since May 2020.

Last week, the Government announced its expansion of community asymptomatic testing to identify more positive cases of COVID-19.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) guidance was updated on 10 November 2020, warning employers that submitting a CJRS claim from 1 December 2020 onwards meant they were also agreeing to HMRC publishing their names.

Last week our look back on 2020 reflected on Public Health and the COVID-19 pandemic, this article considers 2020 in terms of the equality agenda. Although, the constant refrain from the Government has been that we are all in this pandemic together and all have a part to play to get out of it, it is clear that this pandemic has not hit all members of society equally.

The UK government is relying on the national vaccination programme against COVID-19 as a route out of this crisis. The programme is voluntary and the government is clear that it will remain this way, both for civil liberties and public health reasons...

The year 2020 will always be a stand-out year in our personal and professional lives. COVID-19 brought so much suffering to so many across the globe and created a level of uncertainty that we had never experienced before. Businesses were forced to adapt at breakneck speed.

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in the postponement of many employment law changes due to take place in 2020. This article investigates some of the key developments anticipated over the next 12 months.

Again, employers and employees are facing the difficult balancing act of managing work and childcare through this third national lockdown. The three main options for employers to manage such leave are to place affected parents/guardians on furlough, have parents use their annual leave to take time off or take unpaid leave.

Now that the UK is past its first week of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, employers are starting to consider what 2021 will look like and whether there is hope of the workplace returning to some form of normality. The question on many employers’ minds is - can we require our staff to get vaccinated?

The Government’s CEST tool, designed to help determine whether a worker will be caught by the changes to the off payroll working rules (IR35) was unable to reach a conclusion in 19% of cases checked in the last year.