As you were - implications for employers of the "Living with COVID" plan

What happened

On 21 February the government published its “Living with COVID” plan, outlining how it intends to move to managing COVID as any other respiratory illness over the coming months. For employers, the most significant part of the plan is the government’s decision to remove legal restrictions on behaviour while encouraging people to continue to follow public health advice.

The key changes in England are:

• Removing the legal requirement on those who have tested positive, or close contacts of a case who are not fully vaccinated, to self-isolate and avoid contact with other people (from 24 February);
• Ending the requirement on employees to tell their employer that they are required to self-isolate (from 24 February);
• Reverting to the normal SSP qualifying conditions, meaning that those with COVID-19 will not qualify for SSP from the first day of absence (from 24 March); and
• Withdrawing free universal testing through access to lateral flow tests (from 1 April).

The Devolved Administrations will set out their plans to manage the transition to the new phase of managing COVID-19 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland separately.

What does this mean for employers?

The important point for employers in England is that government guidance remains that people with COVID should remain at home and avoid contact with others, even though this is no longer a legal requirement. The plan says that employers and workers “should follow Government guidance for those with COVID-19”.

In practice, this means that employers are likely to continue to adopt a relatively cautious approach, requiring employees to notify them of a positive COVID test and then to remain away from work for the relevant self-isolation period. Asking employees to remain away from the workplace is unlikely to be problematic if they can work from home and/ or will receive sick pay during any period of absence.

If employees cannot work from home, and will not receive sick pay if they are absent, there is obviously a risk that they will come to work with COVID-19. However, this was a possibility even when the legal obligation to self-isolate applied, so it is not clear that the plan increases the risk in this respect.

In the longer term

Employers will have to review their policies again once free universal testing comes to an end in April, given that once free testing is withdrawn, employees are unlikely to know whether they have COVID-19. The government has indicated that it will provide further guidance to help employers manage the risk of COVID-19 in workplaces, which should be available by 1 April.

It is possible that post-March, some employers will provide lateral flow tests for staff to use if they are symptomatic, although the cost of this is obviously not yet clear. Employees could then be told to work from home for a period, or given sick pay if they are too unwell to work. 

Otherwise, employers are probably going to have to ask employees to exercise judgment about whether it is appropriate to attend the workplace if they are feeling unwell, recognising that it will be easier for someone to remain away if they are not going to lose pay as a consequence.

Authored by Jo Broadbent, Ed Bowyer and Stefan Martin.