Virtual Redundancy Consultation During Furlough

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 07/10/2020 As the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) comes to an end on 31 October 2020, many organisations may be contemplating redundancies, particularly as the new Job Support Scheme (JSS) requires a more significant contribution to wages from employers. Further to Jones Cassidy Brett's briefing on...

In Brief: A Roundup of Remote Working Resources

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 05/10/2020 Remote/home working and the pros and cons of this working arrangement have been much debated over the last few months. As this arrangement looks set to continue for some time, this month’s In Brief article focuses on some resources and stories about issues arising with and getting the most out of r...

New Job Support Scheme - Key Points

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 25/09/2020 The Government introduced the New Job Support Scheme (JSS) on 24th September to support viable jobs in businesses which are facing lower demand over the winter months due to COVID-19 after the closure of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on 31 October 2020. The JSS will open on 1 Novem...

Disregarding Covid Related Absences

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 23/09/2020 Louise: So moving into then absence management. As I said, I think there's a policy decision to be had by management as to whether when it comes to either looking at short-term absence or long-term absence, we do have two options. Option one is simply disregarding COVID-related absences....

Absence Management Procedures During Covid

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 23/09/2020 How do I handle absence management procedures during Covid? Louise: Having a look then in terms of absence management, I suppose absence management has not necessarily been at the top of our agenda over the last number of weeks, but there's absolutely no doubt that when things start to ev...

Stress Risk Assessments

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 23/09/2020 Does Dr McCrea have any specific advice on conducting stress risk assessments at this time? These are being conducted due to mental health concerns. Transcript Dr McCrea: The stress risk assessment as an assessment is a very nebulous and intangible concept I have to say and increasingly I ...

OH Reports

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 23/09/2020 One issue that keeps cropping up for us is the question confidentiality and the sharing of occupational health reports by our in-house occupational health advisors of the organisation. Currently, OH will not release an OH report to the organisation without the consent of the employee. Where the con...

Confidentiality and Consent of OH Reports

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 23/09/2020 What happens if only one member of an organisation receives the report, yet others need to see it? Transcript I think it's very important that we operate on the principle of informed consent. So if the employee knows who you're going to send the report and what you're going to do with it a...

OH Referrals during Covid-19

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 23/09/2020 As most organisations are no longer doing face-to-face medicals or face-to-face referrals, how can we get information? Transcript Actually, I'm incredibly busy doing remote consultations by video and telephone, and they are hugely successful. In the four weeks since lockdown began, my co...

Data Protection Update

Posted in: Supplementary Articles NI on 10/09/2020 In this webinar recording, Anna Flanagan, Senior Associate at Pinsent Masons joined Scott Alexander, Head of Learning and Development at Legal Island to discuss the following topics: Update from Regulators and enforcement action during/after the pandemic Working from home: risks associated with em...