The 'Living with COVID-19 Plan' for employers in England

What does the Living with COVID-19 Plan mean for employers in England?

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have often been asked how the relevant Government guidance should be applied in practice in the workplace. Queries have varied from the rules regarding sick pay to the increase of home and hybrid working.

After two years of restrictions, the new Plan sets out how we should move forward in day-to-day life with managing the virus by focusing on four principles: living with COVID-19, protecting people most vulnerable to COVID-19, managing resilience, and securing innovations and opportunities. But, what does this mean for employers?

What are the latest changes to COVID-19 guidance?

Since April 1^st 2022, there have been three main changes to the guidance which relate to testing, self-isolation and employer health and safety.

Testing

• For the majority of the public there is no longer free testing available for people with and without symptoms.

Self-isolation

• People who test positive are now required to exercise personal responsibility in their decision to stay at home.

Employer health and safety

• When carrying out risk assessments, employers do not need to consider the virus as a separate risk when evaluating how to keep employees safe;
• The ‘Working Safely’ guidance has now been replaced with ‘Reducing the Spread’ guidance.

What problems could the new Plan cause employers, and how may employers choose to handle them?

Testing

As there is no longer access to free testing for the majority of the public, this could cause problems for employers who wish to continue requiring employees to test prior to going to their workplace. Due to the Plan shifting the focus on testing the general public to only those who are most vulnerable, employers could be faced with a challenge where employees refuse to test themselves as per the new guidance.

Employers may attempt to combat this by privately buying and providing COVID-19 tests for their employees, however unless required under specific industry rules employees may still refuse.

Self-isolation

As there is also no longer a requirement to self-isolate after having tested positive for COVID-19 combined with the fact that SSP has reverted to its original position (meaning only those who are too sick to work can receive it), some employees may not share that they have tested positive and continue attending their workplaces.

Employers may also face a problem where an employee has tested positive but is only experiencing mild symptoms and wishes to continue working. Where employees are able to work from home this issue can easily be solved, but where homeworking is not available it is more challenging. Employers may choose to deal with this situation by providing enhanced sick pay in order to cover the first three days of sickness (which are now unpaid as employees are no longer entitled to receive SSP from the first day of sickness).

Employer health and safety

While the Working Safely guidance has now been replaced, as the Plan states that employers must continue considering employees who are more vulnerable to the virus, the new guidance makes this more difficult. For example, due to there no longer being free testing an employee could attend the workplace without knowing they are positive and therefore put those more vulnerable at risk.

Problems relating to health and safety will be more challenging for employers to deal with and will likely require more input from the Government, especially regarding vulnerable employees.

How does the new ‘Reducing the Spread’ guidance assist employers?

The Reducing the Spread guidance aims to help employers run safe workplaces under the new Plan.

This guidance has provided that:

• In order to decrease the spread of infections, employers should:
  • Ensure their workplaces are clean;
  • Consider how ventilation can be improved; and
  • Encourage and allow staff to get vaccinated.
• Employers should continue to consult with their staff on health and safety matters regarding COVID-19 in the workplace; and
• Employers should consider the needs of employees who are more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Conclusion

While the Living with COVID-19 Plan has provided overall guidance on how employers can run workplaces safely, it is clear that many questions will be raised regarding how to deal with specific employee-related issues. As part of the new Plan, the Government has stated it will consult with employers across all industries to ensure this guidance works in practice. As seen over the past two years any guidance is always subject to change in line with the spread of the virus and will continually develop.