Employers face £10k fine for failing to enforce self-isolation – Richard Fox quoted in Personnel Today

Richard Fox, Partner in our Employment Law team, was quoted in Personnel Today, on 30 September 2020. Richard was commenting on the implications for employers of new laws which make them responsible for ensuring that workers who have to self-isolate don’t attend the workplace.
 

Although this is not an issue if the worker can work from home whilst self-isolating, it will be problematic for employers with workers who cannot work remotely in that they will be dependent on their workers informing them if they need to self-isolate,” he said.

In practice, it is likely that the new rules will be policed internally, with workers effectively snitching or blowing the whistle on fellow workers who come into work whilst having to self-isolate and/or who do not tell their employer that they should be self-isolating.

Employers should be, and will become, increasingly proactive so as to make clear to staff that they must inform the company as soon as they are required to self-isolate (together with relevant dates) in line with the new regulations and that failure to do so will not only be an offence in law, but subject to tough disciplinary action (possibly dismissal) internally."

The full article from Personnel Today can be read here

Further information

Should you have an queries regarding the issues raised in this blog please contact Richard or any member of  our employment team.

About the author

Richard acts for corporates, organisations and senior individuals in relation to employment matters of all kinds.  These include confidentiality and restrictive covenants, executive pay, bonus and severance arrangements, unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing and redundancy programmes.  He is frequently asked to advise in situations involving allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace following the rise of the #MeToo movement, and the cases that have followed.

Richard is a well known commentator on employment law issues, appearing often in the Press (The Times, The Financial Times, People Management, HR Magazine, Personnel Today etc) and on TV/ Radio (BBC, ITV, Sky and Radio 4).