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New coronavirus fines for employers 29 September 2020
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation) (England) Regulations 2020, which came into force on 28 September 2020, introduced a new fine for employers who knowingly allowing employees who must self-isolate, to work. Fines, starting from £1,000 and potentially up to £10,000 for repeat offenders, can be issued to any employer that allows a worker who has tested positive for coronavirus, or who lives with someone that has tested positive, to work, unless they can work from home. This is only in scenarios where the employer knew the employee’s situation, but means that it is an offence for an employer to let a worker attend any place other than the location in which they should be self-isolating. Workers are also required, by law, to advise their employer if they should be self-isolating. It is now a legal duty for those who test positive for coronavirus, or who are notified to self-isolate via the NHS Track and Trace system, to self- isolate, and separate fines apply for those individuals who flout the rules.
Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, confirmed that the Government would:
“Crack down on employers that [tried] to prevent staff from following the rules.”
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The FCA updates guidance on identifying key workers 30 September 2020
Following on from Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s instruction that those who can work from home, should, in the latest of a raft of lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the ‘second wave’ of coronavirus, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has updated its guidance on identifying key workers. The advice is that office workers who can work effectively from home should do so over the Winter months, but that those who cannot work from home should attend their place of work. The financial services industry has broadly continued operating throughout the pandemic, with a mix of homeworking and some individuals working in locations such as branches and call centres. The FCA highlights the fact that it is imperative for financial services firms to continue with the identification and monitoring of key workers, in order to ensure that they respond effectively should there be any further lockdowns, on either a local or national level. Key financial workers at dual-regulated, FCA solo-regulated firms, PSR-regulated firms, or operators of financial market infrastructure, carry out roles which are integral to the firm being able to carry on providing essential daily financial services to consumers, or to ensure the continued functioning of markets. The FCA advises that firms are in the best position to determine which staff are essential for this provision of financial services. In order to establish which individuals are key workers, firms should first clarify which activities, services or operations, would result in the disruption of essential services to the real economy or financial stability, if they were interrupted. Following that, firms should then decide which individuals are required in order to support these functions. Any critical oustource partners who are critical to the continued provision of services should also be identified, even where they are not necessarily financial services firms. The recommendation is that the Chief Executive Senior Management should be responsible for putting processes in place that mean that only roles meeting the above definition are designated, and that in any businesses who do not have a Chief Executive Senior Manager, the most relevant member of the senior management team adopts this responsibility.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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