Covid-19 employment law implications for your practice

We’re being asked about the employment law implications of drafting in staff to help manage the current situation.

Simply put, if you have an employee’s agreement, you can put into place whatever working arrangements are safe, as long as you’re not breaching any regulations in doing so and they are competent to do the job being asked of them. It is important to have something in writing setting out what you want them to do, how long the arrangement will last for, and whether they’ll receive anything in return (such as payment or time off in lieu).

As an employer you do have rights to enforce changes to working practices and ways of working for existing staff. If necessary, you can issue a formal instruction to staff in writing (“a reasonable management instruction”), and warn them that failure to comply will be treated as a disciplinary matter.

Reliable sources of information for employers include:

Public Health England and BEIS: COVID-19: guidance for employees, employers and businesses (applicable in England) and

Acas: Coronavirus: advice for employers and employees (relevant to employers throughout the UK).

We can help you with legal issues impacting your practice as a result of Covid-19 or the practice generally. Call one of our experts or use our free helpline below.