Samuel Phillips Law Blog
The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. As a result, free movement for nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA) (and Switzerland) will end on 31 December 2020. From 1 January 2021, the UK will operate a new points-based immigration system and EEA citizens moving to the UK to work will need to obtain a visa in advance.
With 2020 proving to be one of the most testing and stressful years most can recall, employers are looking to the works end of year party as an overdue opportunity to thank staff and allow them time to let off some steam.
One common misconception is that a works event held away from the office or outside normal working hours, removes your organisations liability from any incidents that might occur. That’s simply not true.
Keeping an eye on what we need to monitor and manage as Brexit deadlines loom large on the horizon. It’s true, the “B” word has started to appear again after the Oxford English Dictionary confirmed the rise in prevalence of words related to the Pandemic saw the word “Brexit” drop by an amazing 80% in 2020.
Redundancy selection criteria is one of the most contentious areas within redundancy. It need not be. As the acronym suggests “keep it simple stupid”. You can have objective criteria (eg attendance). You can have subjective criteria (eg attitude). In effect, as long as the criteria you select are not utter drivel eg “karma” that is fine. The key issue is to draw up clear guidelines of what you mean and how you score with examples.
There are no hard and fast rules about drawing up selection pools. However the good news is, there is more than one way in which to create a selection pool and as long as your way is reasonable, that is good enough, even if there is another way that is also reasonable. The first question you ask yourself is what is the area of work that is changing? This could be a geographic change such as closing a depot or a change in the type of work which the business is performing.
We know that in terms of SSP, you cannot receive SSP and furlough at the same time and this is likely because both are government benefits. When an employee returns from sick leave and is fit for work, you can put them on furlough leave then. We know that holiday accrues during furlough leave and that employees/workers can carry over up to 4 weeks holiday in the next 2 years. We also know that Employers can require employees/worker to take holiday during furlough provided that they give twice as much notice as the leave they are required to take.
The Government ordered lots of workplaces (e.g. pubs, cafes non-essential shops) to close over the last couple of weeks but some remain open for business. For those that businesses that haven’t been ordered to close, those employees who can work from home; must do so and employers are under an obligation to set them up so they can work from home.