ACAS has updated its guidance on the following: Vaccine: getting the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for work (available here).  The Guidance now includes advice on: how to offer support to staff that are getting the vaccine; what employers should do if they feel it is important for staff to receive the   vaccine; and how to resolve…
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What do we already know? In our December 2020 Newsletter we updated you here on the High Court decision that the Government had not properly implemented various EU health and safety protections (The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain v The Secretary of State for Work & Pensions and another). In particular, the High Court…
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Currently, as the UK goes through its priority groups, we are not yet in a situation where everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated (whether they wish to be or not). In particular, the priority groups are primarily set on the basis of age. Therefore introducing a mandatory vaccination policy now would likely be…
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What do we already know? More than 112 organisations across almost 500 sites are offering rapid, regular workforce testing, and more than 2.5 million lateral flow tests have been distributed by the Government. Lateral flow is an established technology, adapted to detect proteins (antigens) that are present when a person has COVID-19. The test kit…
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What do we already know? We updated you in our August 2020 Newsletter Coronavirus (COVID-19): Updated guidance on returning to the workplace on the 14 workplace guides the Government had published to enable employers to operate safely (known as being “COVID secure”). What’s new? The Government has updated the majority of the 14 workplace guides…
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Summary:  Should workers have protection from being subjected to detriments on health and safety grounds, and the right to be provided with PPE, in the same way as employees? Yes, held the High Court in The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain v The Secretary of State for Work & Pensions and another (available here).…
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The Government has published guidance (available here) to help employers understand the regulations and legal obligations that apply if they wish to introduce their own testing programmes outside the NHS Test and Trace. Such testing programmes may, for example, give confidence to employees and customers in the workplace and to help protect business continuity.  However, there is…
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The Government has published new guidance (available here) for employers and employees on the rules relating to self-isolation after returning to the UK. The guidance covers those who are returning from a country without an ‘air-bridge’ (i.e. a quarantine exemption).  For the list of those countries with air-bridges see here. The list is continuously updated with…
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1. Safe Workplace: A toolkit (available here) has been published to help employers create a safe workplace for employees to return to when offices re-open.  The toolkit has been compiled by the Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM), with input from several national organisations including ACAS, CIPD and MIND. The toolkit complies with the directions and…
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What do we already know? We updated you in our June 2020 Newsletter Coronavirus (COVID-19): Returning to the workplace that the Government had issued workplace-specific guides on working safely during the Coronavirus pandemic. What’s new? As businesses continue to re-open their offices, the Government has updated their workplace guides (available here) to enable employers to operate…
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