Recent and Forthcoming Employment Law & HR Updates - July 2021
Recent employment legislation changes to note …1 July 2021 – Updated Home Office Guidance on Checking ‘Right to Work’ Status:
The Home Office have now updated their guidance for employers on checking the ‘right to work status’ of employees, which came into effect from 1 July 2021.
As a reminder ‘right to work’ checks should be conducted before you employ a person, to ensure they are legally allowed to do the work in question for you. Right to work checks should be conducted on ALL employees, including British citizens. As an employer, you shouldn’t just check the status of those prospective employees who appear to be migrants, otherwise you could fall foul of anti-discrimination employment law. As such, as an employer, you should not make assumptions about a person’s right to work in the UK, or their immigration status, on the basis of their colour or nationality. If an individual’s right to work is time limited, you should ensure that you conduct a follow-up check shortly before it is due to come to an end.
The key updates to the Home Office guidance relate to:
- How EU and EEA citizens will prove their right to work in the UK from 1 July 2021 onwards, when they will no longer be able to rely on their passport or identity card to prove their right to work, and when they will be required to provide evidence of lawful immigration status, in the same way as foreign nationals.
- Changes to the acceptable document lists to account for the removal of the requirement of EEA passports, national identity cards and specified EEA Regulations documents and the inclusion of Irish passports, passport cards, and documents issued by the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man.
- Inclusion of some cohort EEA citizens who will not have to have status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
- The temporary adjusted right to work checking process during Covid-19 which has now been extended to 31 August 2021.
The Government’s on-line tool for checking Right to Work status can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/legal-right-work-uk
Covid-19 Related Updates:
From 19 July 2021 - Keeping Workplaces Covid-19 Secure:
Restrictions will be lifted in England from 19 July 2021. From this date the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has recommended a gradual return to the workplace. However, some employees may request to continue working at home and if they do, you do not have to agree to this. However, you may decide to allow a degree of home-working in conjunction with time spent in the workplace i.e., hybrid-working, but again, you don’t have to do this.
With regard to the workplace, you will need to ensure that you continue to follow relevant Government guidance on working safely and ensure you put in place measures to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission. Despite the restrictions lifting, you will need to ensure that you continue with social distancing, adequate ventilation, frequent cleaning and good hand hygiene.
In early 2020 we provided all our clients with a template ‘Workplace Infection Prevention and Control Policy’ which, due to the recent rise in infections, we would advise you continue to adopt after 19 July 2021.
Our template Workplace Infection Prevention and Control Policy can be accessed here: Workplace-Infection-Prevention-and-Control-Policy
Further guidance from the Health and Safety Executive, which includes links to advice from public health bodies and other Government departments can be accessed here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/roadmap-further-guidance.htm
From October 2021 – Compulsory Vaccination Requirement for deployment in CQC Registered Care Homes:
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has recently announced that anyone working in CQC-registered care homes will need to be fully Covid-19 vaccinated, with both doses, as a condition of deployment. The decision was announced in the Government’s response to the recent public consultation which ran from 14 April to 21 May 2021. The consultation proposed to amend the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The new legislation means that from October 2021, subject to Parliamentary approval and a subsequent 16-week grace period, anyone working in a CQC-registered care home in England for residents requiring nursing or personal care must have two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine unless they have a medical exemption.
The law will apply to all workers employed directly by the care home or care home provider, on a full-time or part-time basis, those employed by an agency and deployed by the care home, and volunteers deployed in the care home. People coming into care homes to do other work, such as healthcare workers, CQC inspectors, tradespeople, hairdressers, and beauticians will also have to follow the new regulations, unless they have a medical exemption. There will also be exceptions for visiting family and friends, under 18s, emergency services, and people undertaking urgent maintenance work. Further consultation will now be launched on whether to make Covid-19 and flu vaccinations a condition of deployment in other health and care settings.
The Government said responses to the consultation “made a case for extending this policy beyond care homes to other settings where people vulnerable to Covid-19 receive care, such as domiciliary care and wider healthcare settings”. The previous Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “Vaccines save lives and while staff and residents in care homes have been prioritised and the majority are now vaccinated, we need to do everything we can to keep reducing the risk … this is the right thing to do and a vitally important step to continue protecting care homes now and in the future. I’d urge anyone working in care homes to get their jab as soon as possible.” This change currently only applies to England. Scotland is yet to give its stance on the matter, but Wales has confirmed that it will not be mandating the Covid-19 vaccine for care home staff.
From a HR perspective, making the vaccine compulsory in care homes could cause significant resourcing problems for affected employers if staff choose not to have the vaccine despite the possibility that they will lose their job and possibly even their chosen career. One important consideration for employers is that, if it comes to terminating employment, a full and fair procedure will still be needed. A change in the law on vaccines in this way does not mean an exemption from normal rules on achieving a fair dismissal.
How Can We Help?
If you have any queries relating to the content of this newsletter, or any other HR related topic, please don’t hesitate to contact us via [email protected].