HR Articles

A survey conducted by the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) found that 78% of employers had no plans to check employee’s vaccine status before returning to the workplace. 

From this week, people in England identified by NHS Test and Trace as being in contact of someone testing positive for COVID-19 are now able to opt in to take part in a trial of daily lateral flow device testing as an alternative to self-isolation.

With the Covid-19 vaccine being rolled out on a global scale, on the whole, immigration to the UK appears to have resumed, with exceptions. Within the UK, visa application centres (UKVCAS Service Points) are classed as an ‘essential service’ and therefore remain open despite any Covid-19 measures in place.

Lockdown restrictions are set to be eased further on 17 May 2021, and many employers are beginning to welcome their employees back to the workplace. While it is understandable that employers will be focused on protecting their employees’ physical health, ensuring that its workplace is Covid-19 secure, consideration should also be given to how employers can safeguard their employees’ mental health.

In this month’s Data Protection Round-Up: key takeaways from the ICO Data Protection Practitioners Conference, guidance on anonymisation, and a government response to new cyber security legislation.

The British government has put rules in place banning travel from certain ‘red list countries,’ which currently include: 

The Government is consulting on how its proposed flexi-job apprenticeship schemes could be run, with input invited until 1 June 2021.

Following a Commons debate on 27 April 2021, the Government are considering their response to an ACAS report on the use of a ‘fire and rehire’ approach by employers.

Monica Atwal, managing partner of law firm Clarkslegal, says there are a number of questions an employer should ask if it is looking to adopt a ‘work from anywhere’ strategy. “The reality is that the business will need to do a detailed assessment of the consequences to both them and the employee,” she advises.

The House of Lords COVID-19 committee has acknowledged that hybrid working is here to stay. In the report Beyond Digital: Planning for a Hybrid World the COVID-19 committee acknowledged that hybrid working was always going to come at some point, but the pandemic has accelerated it.