Ramadan during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Thursday 23rd April 2020 signifies the start of Ramadan, which is the holy month of the Islamic calendar in which Muslims often commit to a period of fasting during daylight hours.

With the Coronavirus disrupting normal daily life across not only the UK, but also the world, it is important to remember that some parts of ordinary life still stand for some.

There are 5 things that we’d suggest you do during this time, enabling staff to continue as they would normally; 

1.     Communication

It is important at this stage to remain approachable to staff and ensure you’re continuing to communicate with them, especially if you have people working from home. Individuals may be anxious to discuss this with you as their employer, so it is important to remain open and understanding, in order them to let you know what is involved during this time. 

2.     Flexible Working

Employees during this time may require some adjustments to their working day in order to help them fulfil the needs of Ramadan. This could include changing shift patterns if that is applicable, or allowing people to start and finish earlier to coincide with Ramadan and help with daytime fasting. Adjusting duties may reduce the chance of fatigue impacting performance. These may all be more difficult to do given the current circumstances, however it’s probably more important now to agree what measures can be implemented. 

3.     Annual Leave

Some employees may request to take annual leave to allow them sufficient time to rest. This might be difficult for an organisation to accommodate given the current circumstances, and if furloughed, then you need to make up the additional 20% of the job retention scheme fund, as annual leave should be paid in full. If this is going to be difficult for you, can you come to an agreement on what can be agreed and what can be taken i.e. maybe a few days annual leave as opposed to a whole week? I have stressed the importance of you as employers being creative over the last 6 weeks. Work to agree something between you and an employee and don’t just have a straight decline to a question. These are extraordinary circumstances and we’re all learning to work differently. 

4.     Harassment

Muslim employees are at an increased risk of suffering religious harassment during Ramadan due to the changes to their roles that may be temporarily accepted. Other employees may feel this is unfair and therefore harass unnecessarily those who are taking part in Ramadan. It is your duty as an employer to dispel any notion of “special privileges” and make very clear that any tone of harassment will not be tolerated. There is a very fine line between “banter” and bullying/harassment. This is something all employers will struggle with at some point but it is so important, again now more than ever, where you may have people working remotely, to stay on top of issues like this.

5.     Policy 

Do you have a policy in place to support religious festivities? It may be within your Staff Handbook, or if you don’t have one of those, a separate policy on it’s own? If not, now is the time to get one in place and set out clear guidelines on the measures you put in place to support staff who are part of particular religious festivities and times of the year.

Annual Leave, Bank Holidays and Furlough

With Easter Weekend falling at the end of this week, companies may be wondering how furlough may impact upon employee rights to take annual leave.

There is currently no clarity from the Government on the interaction of annual leave and furlough. However, Acas, and other commentators, seems to suggest that annual leave can be taken during furlough. That would make the impending Easter weekend much less of a problem for businesses whose employees are currently furloughed, in that the Bank Holidays would not break the furlough period.

Current guidance from Acas outlines that ‘employees and workers may still be required to use a day’s paid holiday for bank holidays, including when they’re furloughed’. This therefore appears to state that employees can take annual leave during furlough and it will not break the period of furlough that can, provided it is minimum three weeks, be claimed under the Job Retention Scheme. It is important to remember that this is based on the Acas position and has not been confirmed by the Government.

With regards to pay, what should the employee get paid during annual leave that occurs during furlough? If the agreement is that furlough pay is 100 per cent of their wages, this should be stuck to during annual leave. If the agreement is that pay has reduced to 80 per cent, then there is still a strong argument that holiday pay should be 100 per cent, including all the elements that would normally be included, because of the ‘normal pay’ requirement during annual leave. Employers cannot contract someone out of their rights on annual leave.

It should be remembered that this is likely to only apply to the 5.6 weeks of statutory leave that organisations must provide opportunity for employees to take per year. Any contractual entitlement can be paid at whatever is agreed between the organisation and their employees. If organisations don’t like the uncertainty, they may decide to designate furlough as a period during which no annual leave may be taken, at least until there is further guidance available. This may be more preferable, and easier to manage when it comes to making a claim under the CJRS.  Given that it is now possible to carry leave forward to the next two holiday years due to the coronavirus, businesses may be less concerned than they otherwise would be about workers having lots of annual leave to take in that leave year on their return from furlough.

Could businesses seek to enforce annual leave during furlough? Again, there is no official line on this but theoretically, yes. There may be an argument that this circumvents the point of annual leave in that the employee is already not working so organisations are denying them the ability to take it as a break from when they are working. That said, if the organisation is paying annual leave at 100 per cent of wages, the employee might be more willing to have time designated as annual leave if they would otherwise be on 80 per cent.

Some of the wording in this blog has been tweaked from the CIPD Inform website and if there is anything on here that you would like to clarify, please get in touch using the “Get in touch” button on the homepage.

Furlough Leave - Overview and Q&A

Developments to date

On Friday 20th March, the government announced its plans for financial assistance to help organisations retain employees for an extended period of time, despite offering no work, and avoid lay-offs. It is called the Job Retention Scheme and, whilst little information has been published as to how it will work, I have tried to put something together to help you out.

What does furlough mean?

“Furlough” is an American term and has no prior meaning in UK employment law. In the US, it means to allow or force someone to be absent temporarily from work.

In this scenario, it means anyone asked to stop working during the coronavirus pandemic but who has not been made redundant.

What is the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme (CJRS)?

Under the CJRS, employers can contact HMRC for a grant to cover 80% of the “wage costs” of “furloughed” workers up to a total of £2,500 per month. Employers can top up the remaining 20%, but there is no obligation to do so. The scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to 1 March 2020 and will be open initially for 3 months. The Chancellor said in his announcement on 20 March 2020 that there will be no limit on funding available for the scheme. It is understood that this will be for anyone employed from 28th February 2020. This scheme is available for any business, of any size or type.

Importantly, the Government statement said that “changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation.” Typically, this should only occur when you have the correct Lay Off clause within your employment contracts. If this is absent from your contracts you are able to write to each employee varying their contact terms by including a “lay off and short time working” clause.

How do you get the grant?

Guidance sets out that organisations will need to designate which of their workforce will be furloughed employees and then submit that information to HMRC, along with each employee’s earnings. A grant will then be received to cover the 80% wages. More information is awaited from the government on the online portal to be used to submit the information and what other information may be needed.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has stated he hopes the first grants will be paid by the end of April 2020, and they will be backdated to 1st March 2020. The scheme is initially intended to run for 3 months but may be extended.

How do I select employees to be furloughed?

Really, any employee can be furloughed. They need to be on PAYE in order for you as a business to be able to claim the grant for their wages. Guidance states that the ability to furlough an employee depends on their contract. It is not likely that employee contracts will include a specific right to use furlough. However, contracts which contain a right to lay-off employees on no pay already gives organisations the right to send employees home and not pay them for a temporary period and so can likely be used to furlough employees.

The CJRS involves “furloughing” designated workers who would otherwise have been “laid off” in this crisis. There is no set procedure that needs to be followed, however, I would advise that if you are selecting specific employees, that you do this as you would select people for redundancy i.e. retain the skills you need to keep the business going.

Think about whose skills will continue to be in demand through this difficult period. Whilst it may be assumed that the best thing to do is furlough those employees labelled as high risk by the government, forcing them on to furlough without their input, and therefore forcing them onto 80% wages, may result in discrimination claims from those who allege they were made to do it because of their age, disability or pregnancy.

You can inform staff that you can furlough them, request they come back to work, and then furlough them again, depending on the business needs at the time. As furloughing goes back to temporarily needing employees to take a period of leave from a business.

I have already laid employees off – what do I do?

In this situation, an organisation can get in touch with those employees and agree to change their current status from lay-off to furlough. This would simply involve changing their pay arrangement from nothing (if no pay), to 80% wages, as they are already not working.

This also remains the same if you have recently made redundancies due to the current crisis. The government announcement talked about staff being bought back into the workforce so it would seem possible that you can therefore re-employ and then furlough.

What about agency staff and zero hours workers?

There is no current explicit confirmation, but it is expected that the CJRS will be applicable to all employees.

Will annual leave continue to accrue for furloughed workers?

Annual leave will continue to accrue as they still remain employees of the company as opposed to being made redundant.

To manage this with your staff, you could agree with people that they take annual leave instead of furlough leave, but there may be little incentive to do so for some employees.

What happens if I had new starters join after 28th February or started in February but added on Payroll in March, will they still be entitled to the 80%?

The scheme is backdated until 1st March 2020 and appears to be available for employees, with no restriction on start date. We do still wait further guidance however.

If employees are placed on furlough leave, can there be a rotation of furlough leave between members of staff?

It is not clear what the stance on this is, but at the moment there is no reason to say this can’t happen.

As business needs may change, it would appear sensible for rotation to be allowed but we are yet to be told otherwise.

I have employees that are off long term i.e. maternity leave – what happens to them?

There would be no change to status for employees on maternity or paternity leave.

Can an employee be forced by their employer to take furlough leave?

If a contractual clause exists which permits the employer to either lay off, or bring in short time working, an employer can insist on furlough leave without consent.

Is it possible for an employee to ask their employer that they be placed on furlough leave?

Yes, but there is no obligation for an employer to agree to do this.

Whilst this is a very uncertain time for all affected by this, please do get in touch if you need any further guidance on furloughing staff or anything relating to the coronavirus pandemic and work.

Coronavirus Advice and Guidance for Employers

This is going to be an unsettling time for any business, let alone small businesses, and I recognise that every business owner will be facing different issues every day. I have therefore put this blog together to hopefully be able to tackle and reassure you on some of the current concerns and questions you may have on Coronavirus and how to manage it at work.

As you will be aware, this situation is quickly evolving and therefore new advice and guidance (and even new legislation), is coming in daily. There are a number of risks that employers will need to be aware of with regards to this virus and it is really important to remember that as employers, you have a duty of care on your employees. You therefore need to make some considerations for the health and safety of your workforce and what this means for your business.

Every business will be different, whether you work in retail, hospitality, construction or within an office environment. No case will be the same and that’s why it’s so important to get sound advice before you take any steps that could drastically affect your staff.

You may want to get certain things in place such as Homeworking Policies and a Business Continuity Procedure – these documents, along with others are available from myself so please just get in touch and let me know what it is you are looking for.

Self-Isolation

Government and medical advice currently is that anyone who is showing mild symptoms of the flu should self-isolate for a period of 7 days after the symptoms started to show. Anyone who lives in the same household as someone who displays these symptoms should self-isolate for a period of 14 days. If they start to show symptoms during this time, they should self-isolate for a period of 7 days, even if this is longer than the advised 14 days.

The symptoms as outlined on the NHS 111 website are as follows:

• A new continuous cough and/or

• A high temperature  

Anyone off as a result of the above is entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP), subject to qualifying conditions. It was confirmed on 4th March 2020 that this would start from day one, not day four, for anyone who has the virus, or who is in the “vulnerable category” (currently now those over the age of 70, pregnant women and those under the age of 70 but with underlying medical conditions).

For more information on statutory sick pay, including qualifying conditions, please either refer to the Direct Gov website link below or get in touch with myself.

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay

People do not need to call NHS 111 to go into self-isolation, unless their symptoms worsen after seven days.

Managing the Risk in the Workplace

Boris Johnson has recently explained that it is ‘likely’ the virus will spread in the coming weeks and that ‘everyone is susceptible’ of catching it. It is therefore possible that up to one fifth of employees will be off work during peak weeks.

It is therefore important to ensure you do the following things in the workplace, and make sure to the best of your ability that these are happening;

-       office and working environments should be cleaned daily with products suitable for killing viruses

-       tissues and antibacterial gel should be made available for all staff

-       when coughing and sneezing cover mouth and nose with flexed elbow or tissue – throw tissue away immediately and wash hands

-       staff should be washing their hands regularly (more so if you are a business within the Hospitality/Social Care/Hospital/Teaching industries)

-       reduce the need to shake hands and try some different way of saying “hello” – maybe an elbow pump as opposed to a fist pump!

-       Start to trial homeworking for some staff if you don’t already have this in place – ensure a business continuity plan is in place to also support this

-       Ensure that every member of staffs contact details and emergency contact details are up to date (this is a great excuse to request updates to everyone’s details)

-       Establish if an employee needs to travel, whether this is necessary or if it can be done some other way i.e. virtual meeting

You may see a significant number of individuals now needing to self-isolate and it is highly advisable that you prepare for this. Some employees may feel well enough to continue working despite showing these symptoms; for example, a cough does not necessarily mean that they have the coronavirus. Therefore, you may wish to consider asking the individuals to work from home if possible on a short-term arrangement until the seven-day period has passed, if they feel well enough to do so.

It is important for you to consider extra precautions for staff who might be in that more vulnerable category (aged 70 or over, pregnant woman or underlying health conditions). This may mean sending them home to work, or if that is not possible then to think of another practical means to avoid putting them in harms way of potential infection.

Social Distancing

Government advice from this week (w/c 16th March), is for everyone to try and stop unnecessary contact with other people – ‘social distancing. This includes;

-       working from home where possible

-       avoiding busy commuting times on public transport

-       avoiding gatherings of people, whether at home, work or in public

You as an employer should therefore support you staff to take these steps. This might include:

·       agreeing to more flexible ways of working, for example changing start and finish times to avoid busier commuting times

·       allowing staff to work from home wherever possible

·       cancelling face-to-face events and meetings and rearranging to remote calling where possible, for example using video or conference calling technology

If an Employee does not want to attend Work

Some people might feel they do not want to go to work if they're afraid of catching coronavirus. This could particularly be the case for those who are at higher risk. You will need to listen to any concerns staff may have and should take steps to protect everyone.

If an employee still does not want to go in, they may be able to arrange with you to take the time off as holiday or unpaid leave. You don’t however need to agree to this.

If an employee refuses to attend work without a valid reason, it could result in disciplinary action.

Closing the Workplace

This is probably a concern that a lot of small and medium sized businesses will face over the coming weeks and it’s important to have a plan in place to support this. Even if this could be a temporary closure, you need to have a firm plan in place. It is really important here to make sure you have a good method of communication between you and your staff and ensure they are kept up to date at every opportunity.

·      Lay-offs and short-time working

In some situations, you might need to close down the business for a short time, or ask staff to reduce their contracted hours. If you think you'll need to do this, it's important to talk with staff as early as possible and throughout the closure.

Dependant on what is in their contracts, will lead to how they are paid during this time.

Employees who are laid off and are not entitled to their usual pay might be entitled to a 'statutory guarantee payment' of up to £29 a day from the business. This is only available when specific clauses are in the contract and have been made explicit.

This is limited to a maximum of 5 days in any period of 3 months. On days when a guarantee payment is not payable, employees might be able to claim Jobseekers Allowance from Jobcentre Plus.

 For further information please send a message using the “Get in Touch” button on the website.