HR Articles

On Saturday 27 November 2021, it was announced that the UK will bring in new measures to protect against COVID-19 following the detection of the Omicron variant. This also comes after other European countries impose further lockdowns and restrictions as the winter wave of COVID-19 continues to worsen.

Technology has placed a major role in ensuring the survival of businesses across the country over the past 18 months. Companies with strong IT capabilities will have been better placed to weather the changes brought on by the pandemic to the way we work, and our reliance on technology is only set to increase.  

UK businesses are currently trading in a time with the highest rate of staff shortages last seen in the late 1990’s. Recent figures from UK Hospitality (the British Hospitality Association) highlight the ongoing crisis in the sector caused by the chronic labour shortage of hospitality staff.

The pandemic has brought the topic of health and wellbeing to the forefront, not least in the employment sphere. With an overnight move for many from office to homeworking, there was an increased focus on mental resilience, loneliness, and the blurred lines between work and rest, and between work and home life. Across the country, many employees suddenly had the opportunity to experience both the perks of working away from the office, as well as the detriments.  

In the UK, it is not mandatory to have the COVID-19 vaccination for the general population. However, from 11 November 2021, individuals working in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered care home for adults in England will need to provide proof that they have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to enable them to enter the premises (unless they are medically exempt). 

It’s inevitable that many employers will now find themselves facing an increasing number of flexible working requests from employees who have been able to work remotely from home in recent months and wish to continue to do so in some form.   

UK employers are required by law to conduct right to work document checks on all employees prior to the start date of their employment, to ensure that all employees are legally permitted to live and work in the UK.

Employers with longstanding employees are likely to have changed record/filing systems over the employee’s length of service. Outside of the tribunal context, the increasing use of data subject access requests is leading to unwanted exposure of employers’ record keeping habits.  

In the months that have followed the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and the return to the workplace, the impact of the pandemic on employees’ mental health has started to show.

If an employee or worker is dismissed because they leave or refuse to return to a workplace that they reasonably believe is dangerous they may have a claim for automatically unfairly dismissal. That means they do not need the usual two years’ service to submit a claim to the employment tribunal.