Coronavirus Hub

ACAS has updated its coronavirus guidance for employers and employees.

An employee made redundant in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic was unfairly dismissed because her employer hadn’t considered furloughing her as an alternative to redundancy.

An employee’s furlough pay can be calculated in accordance with the terms agreed upon by the employer and employee through a variation in the employee’s contractual terms. The formula set out in the Treasury Directions governing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was not mandatory for employers to use and did not supersede existing employment law rights and obligations.

An employee dismissed for leaving work and refusing to return because of COVID-19-related concerns was not automatically unfairly dismissed.

An employee with long COVID symptoms was ‘disabled’ for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.

A complete lack of any consultation or selection process, allied to notifying staff of redundancies via a Facebook post, led to unfair dismissal.

With almost all COVID-19 restrictions lifted or about to be lifted, we look at how employers should approach the return to the office.

The Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme closes for COVID-19-related absences after 17 March 2022.

The dismissal of a care home employee for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was fair.

The dismissal of an employee was automatically unfair because she had made protected disclosures (whistleblowing) relating to her employer’s lax and inadequate implementation of their own COVID-19 protocols at her workplace during the early part of the pandemic.