Employers are making contingency plans to avoid redundancies – or at least make them a last resort – if the government’s furlough scheme is not extended beyond 30 June 2020.
Landlords planning to end a residential tenancy must factor in a delay of (at least) three months before they may be able to recover possession of their property, compared to the previous notice period of one month, under new COVID-19 related laws.
Employers should consider which workers will be entitled to carry four weeks’ annual leave forward, for up to two years, and the impact of that on future staffing levels, under new laws saying they can – provided the reason they could not take it in the year it accrued is because of the coronavirus.
Employers should ensure they comply with new HSE guidance on when they should report cases of coronavirus at work.
New government guidance ‘Guidance: Coronavirus (COVID-19): right to work checks’ adjusts the way employers can carry out right-to-work checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, to cater for employees working from home and/or communicating with others electronically.
Residential landlords must comply with a new requirement to carry out electrical safety checks at properties they let on new tenancies, and on existing tenancies, including assured shorthold tenancies that have ‘rolled over’ and become statutory periodic tenancies.