Desk-based workers should return to offices from 1 August, as long as it is safe to do so, but employers who open their doors should be wary advise lawyers.
News
Blanket return to offices ‘risky strategy’, say lawyers
By on 24 July 2020
Speaking from Downing Street last week, the Prime Minister said guidance would no longer tell people to work from home: “We’re going to give employers more discretion and ask them to make decisions about how their staff can work safely.”
Writing on their website, Colin Leckey and Helen Coombes, at Lewis Silkin, said: “A blanket requirement for all employees to return to work would be a risky strategy for an employer to take if work has continued with some semblance of normality remotely throughout lockdown.”
They predict grievances could follow for breaches of Covid-19 secure guidelines. Public transport-reliant staff also run the risk of making claims. In total the firm has drawn up 12 scenarios employers should consider for a return to offices.
“Against that background, many employers will look to mitigate risk either by not asking employees to return to office-based roles or by giving them a free choice on whether to do so,” they write.
“There are reputational as well as legal risks for those that take a different approach. Although the Prime Minister’s announcement is intended to encourage a step change, it may end up bringing about only a small shift.”
The Prime Minister said he wants to get Britain ‘back to normal by Christmas’ when he floated the new guidance on 17 July. “It is my strong and sincere hope that we will be able to review the outstanding restrictions and allow a more significant return to normality from November at the earliest – possibly in time for Christmas”.
The TUC cautioned employers to manage the return to workplaces in a “phased and safe way”. “All employers must complete a risk assessment and enable social distancing.”
NEWS
New study to track home workers’ experiences
By Belinda Liversedge on 24 February 2021
Seven in ten (73 per cent) of us would prefer to work from home some of the time according to a new report on home workers’ experiences during lockdown.
MPs call for long Covid to be recognised as occupational disease
By Belinda Liversedge on 18 February 2021
The Government has been called on to launch a compensation scheme for frontline workers who are suffering from the long-term effects of coronavirus, otherwise known as ‘long Covid’.
Grenfell cladding suppliers ignored results of safety test
By Belinda Liversedge on 17 February 2021
Cladding used on Grenfell was ten times more flammable than an alternative product that could have been used, an inquiry heard yesterday.