With more than 300 cases of Coronavirus confirmed in the UK, it’s a good time for companies to consider contingency plans and ways to protect their employees and for ways to protect the business itself.

Some workplaces will be more at risk of infecting spreading than others but there are a few things that employers could consider.

1. Inform your staff

Ensure that your employees know the symptoms and that they know what to do if they have any concerns. Share public health information via email or put information on your staff notice boards.

2. Insist on good hygiene

Regular hand washing can slow down epidemics so provide hand sanitiser gels and handwash in your workplace washrooms. It may also be a good idea to invest in some medical strength hand sanitiser to keep at entrances to your building, on reception desks, print stations and kitchens to encourage regular hand washing in high-traffic areas. Ensure that your cleaners are wiping down door handles, taps and toilet flushes with antibacterial cleaning products.

3. Sickness & working from home

Promote a workplace where people who are sick do not feel pressured to come into the workplace. If staff members have cold/flu like symptoms, it is best for them to stay at home to avoid illness being spread throughout the office. You may want to promote working from home opportunities, but this is obviously dependant on the viability of the roles. Check that your sickness absence and remote working policies are up to date.

4. Offer support

As employers you not only have a duty of care to ensure you take reasonable steps to ensure health and safety, but also the well-being of your people. If the outbreak in the UK becomes more serious, people are likely to feel anxious. Be supportive of staff struggling with anxiety or those who have underlying health or immune problems.

5. Disaster Recovery Plan

Does your Disaster Recovery Plan detail what you do if your workplace becomes infected with the virus? There are several questions to ask yourselves, such as What would happen if key people within your business were unable to work? What remote working policies do you have in place if your staff are best suited to work from home? What would happen if suppliers or clients your business is dependent on are out of action?

Coronavirus & Sick Pay

Entitlement to sick pay will be determined in an individual’s employment contract and/or staff handbook. In light of the serious risk of infection with coronavirus, you may wish to treat cases on an individual basis where employees do not qualify for sick pay to avoid employees trying to come into work whilst they are sick.

If you have asked employees not to come into work (either because they have returned from China or are at risk) they should be paid their normal salary or working hours if they have been requested not to come into work by the employer.

In a statement to the House of Commons on 4 March 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the emergency measures were being introduced so that employees would not lose out financially where they are asked to stay at home to protect others in the workplace from the virus. Therefore, the government proposes to make statutory sick pay (SSP) become payable from day one of sick leave opposed to day four. The government have not confirmed when this shall take effect. The rate of SSP will increase from £94.25 per week to £95.85 on 6 April 2020.

Employee absences

When there is a world disaster such as a virus outbreak, it is possible that some members of your workforce that use it as an opportunity not to come into work. There may be some cases where people are genuinely concerned about travelling, for example they may be pregnant, have immune issues or may use on public transport and are worried about contracting the disease. But you may experience others who try to take advantage of the situation. If or when you come across these cases it is important to assess the risk for each individual case. Employers need to be mindful of getting themselves into an employment dispute for disciplining or dismissing staff for not attending work and ensure that they have acted reasonably.

As the outbreak develops, there may be other issues that come to light that employers will need to react quickly too.

For advice on all employment law matters email Irina Polyakova or Lewis Holroyd.