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You may remember that the government previously introduced a “name and shame” scheme for employers who had flouted the National Minimum Wage (NMW) regulations. The scheme had been paused so that an evaluation of its effectiveness could be carried out. As a result the government announced on 11 February 2020 that the scheme would resume, and it published its first list on 31st December 2020.

I know that it can be frustrating for employers when they have an employee who always seems to be off sick and the get to the point of “enough is enough” but even then it is important to follow your processes as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) found out to their cost.

In a recent tribunal claim brought by one of their former employees, Mr Rumbold, it was found that despite missing over 800 shifts during his 20-year employment with them, their failure to follow their absence management process meant that a tribunal found his ultimate dismissal to be unfair. It is estimated that it cost the firm £95,850 in sick pay during that time.

I have had a lot of employers contact me to ask about various scenarios regarding Covid symptoms. For example, involving employees who: have tested positive for the Coronavirus; have been in contact with someone who has symptoms; are shielding; or have returned from abroad etc.

The number of claims received by employment tribunals were up 27% last year over the previous year, significantly larger than the 7% increase over the previous period. This is not unexpected, but with the delays caused by historic funding issues and the changes in operation by the Tribunal Service, the number of pending cases has increased significantly. However, Tribunals are now working on dealing with more of them as online/ hybrid hearings as they try to tackle the backlog.

So how does this impact on employers?

On 4th January 2021, The Prime Minister announced that there would be an imminent return to lockdown in England (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had already taken action to impose stricter restrictions). This is a change from the tiered approach that had been taken at the end of 2020. This has altered the working situations for many people – especially with regards to the instruction (rather than guidance) to work from home where possible. Many sectors of business have also been ordered to close and so it is worth bringing together the information that is currently available.