Since March 2020 we have experienced the significant shift to working from home, which, in part, is expected to continue indefinitely. This move is now a hot topic of debate. According to the Office for National Statistics, in April 2020, 46.6% of people in employment did some work at home and of those who did some work from home, 86.0% did so as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Many employees are reporting that removing their commute and having their work station so accessible has meant that they are in fact putting in more hours than ever before.

Some employers are saying that they will not employ new staff unless they have had the vaccine, creating the “no jab no job” headlines we have seen. However, could this kind of policy be discriminatory? Can employers require their current staff to have the vaccine? Will employers still need to have Covid-secure measures in place when staff return to the office? Government guidance is awaited on these tricky issues. In the meantime, the points below should help employers make informed decisions about the best way to move forward.

At Jones Chase, we believe that we will see an increase in whistleblowing claims in 2021 as a result of issues related to Covid-19. In this bulletin we set out what kinds of disclosures and responses to them can give rise to potential legal liability for employers and how getting it wrong can prove very costly and time consuming.

New rules for off-payroll working are coming into force on 6 April 2021 for the private sector, commonly known as the “IR35” regime. These changes have a wide-ranging impact and affect hundreds of thousands of contractors and consultants, the agencies and recruiters that get them work and importantly, the businesses who ultimately use their services. Within this bulletin, Jones Chase team up with expert tax lawyers Winslows (www.winslows.co.uk) to explain the key impact of the new rules and what you need to know about them.

From the Government’s recent announcement and the news generally, 2021 is certainly off to a turbulent start. There has been an immediate impact on working parents due to the closure of schools on very short notice, which requires a flexible approach to be taken. Employers will also need to be mindful of the adverse effects of a third period of lock down on the mental health of their workforce.

The UK Government has announced that companies will be expected to contribute to their furloughed employees’ salaries from 1 August 2020 and the scheme is due to come to an end on 31 October 2020. To assist you through this time, here are five creative employment law options which will help to keep good teams intact, keep morale high and avoid compulsory redundancies.