Are businesses coping with the novel Corona Virus?

How will coronavirus affect the workplace?

Employers are already feeling the knock-on effects of coronavirus, with City businesses sending staff home, bans on business travel and companies referring to sickness policies to ensure they’ll be ok if the situation worsens.

Here are five important questions about coronavirus and the workplace answered:

1. Can I cancel an employee’s annual leave if I know they are going to an area with a high number of coronavirus cases?

The law does allow employers to cancel annual leave that’s already been authorised, so long as the minimum required notice is given.

However, the consequences of cancelling leave which has already been approved should be considered. In any situation, it’s not likely to go down well with the employee and will often lead to a loss of money for them. If you proceed with cancellation, consider offering compensation for the employee’s financial loss.

There could also be a discrimination risk. For example, cancelling all leave to countries such as China may have a disproportionate impact on Chinese employees using their holiday to visit family.

2. Do I have to allow employees to cancel their booked period of annual leave if they cannot travel abroad as planned?

From an employment law perspective, there’s no requirement for employers to accept workers cancelling holiday. If you have specific rules on allowing employees to cancel their leave, you can stick to these. However, given the circumstances, it may be advisable to be more flexible and allow cancellation.

3. I have an employee who is on holiday in a coronavirus affected area and now can’t get home because their flight has been cancelled. What should I do?

You can expect the employee will to try and identify other methods of getting back home. However, if alternatives aren’t available, there are several ways in which you can deal with this. You can:

• use their annual leave to cover the absence. Naturally, the length of their absence and their remaining entitlement to annual leave will dictate the extent to which you can do this. Using annual leave like this will have to be agreed with the employee unless you take the step of enforcing annual leave on the employee. To enforce annual leave, you need to give your employee twice as long notice as the annual leave that you require them to take. For example, a week’s leave will need two weeks’ notice. However, the inevitable uncertainty around the length of their absence will make this difficult.
• agree for the employee to work from the location they are stranded if their job allows for this and they have the equipment they need to fulfil their duties. However, an employer cannot insist that they work from a location if it is not viable.
• agree that the employee uses banked time off in lieu. However, it’s not likely that the employee will have enough lieu time to cover an extended absence.
• agree a period of paid leave that’s not annual leave.
• agree a period of unpaid leave.
• agree on any other type of leave permitted by the contract that may be appropriate.
• agree a mixture of the above to cover an extended absence.

4. One of my employees has recently come back from holiday and told me that they were informed during the flight that there was a suspected case of coronavirus on the aeroplane. What should I do?

It’s best to take precautionary measures. Your employee may have been in contact with someone who has the virus. A period of suspension (paid unless the contract says otherwise) is advisable.

5. We regularly receive packages that have been sent from China and other infected areas. The staff in my post room are concerned about exposure to the virus and are refusing to touch them. What can I do?

There is currently no evidence that coronavirus can be carried in packages that have originated in China or anywhere else. Therefore, there are no grounds for your workers to refuse to deal with any that are received. To ease any fears, however, you could consider providing gloves which will be thrown away after each use and encourage good hand hygiene.

About the author

Kate Palmer is Associate Director of Advisory at global employment law consultancy at Peninsula.

See also

What employers need to know about the UK points-based immigration rules

How will the new IR35 rules affect off-payroll working?

Businesses that fail to pay minimum wage will continue to be named

Find out more

Coronavirus (COVID-19): latest information and advice (Gov.uk)

Common questions – Coronavirus (COVID-19) (NHS)

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