Coronavirus – Guidance for Concerned Employers

by Paula Quinn, Associate on the Mason Hayes & Curran Employment Law & Benefits team.

With the spread of coronavirus, or COVID-19, showing no signs of abating, Irish employers should consider their obligations towards employees in the event of a public health crisis emerging in Ireland.

Employer obligations

Employers have a duty of care towards employees and are required to take steps to comply with their obligations regarding workplace health and safety. Employers should carry out risk assessments in light of the global emergency, particularly in international organisations where staff travel regularly in the course of their work. Where a risk of employees potentially contracting the virus is identified, the employer should consider what measures they should take to control that risk, such as restricting certain travel arrangements.   On a more basic level, the World Health Organisation has issued guidelines for the public to minimise the spread of infection. Employers may find this advice useful in communicating ways in which their staff can protect themselves and their fellow employees from infection. These measures may include:

• Ensuring there is adequate ventilation in the workplace
• Providing alcohol-based hand sanitisers and
• Reminding employees to stay at home if they experience flu-like symptoms

Managers should be trained in reinforcing these practices to employees, particularly in open plan offices.

Be flexible, be pre-emptive

Given that fewer employees attending the workplace will naturally correspond to a reduction in the spread of infections, employers may consider facilitating employees to work from home or allowing them to work remotely where possible. Employers should take a flexible approach and review their practices as the situation develops. By way of example, a significant global employer in Dublin took the precautionary move of asking more than 1,000 staff based in its Dublin office to work from home this month.

This was prompted by fears that one of their employees in Singapore may have contracted the coronavirus, which fortunately was not the case. Despite there being no confirmed case of infection, a number of employees who visited the Singapore offices had also recently visited the Dublin and Sydney offices, which necessitated the company to review its health and safety obligations.

Further measures

As employers must protect health and safety as far as practicable and provide a safe place of work for their employees, permitting employees to work from home should be considered where risks to employees cannot be avoided. Employers may consider reducing non-essential business travel or conduct meetings via video link instead of in person.

Review employment terms now

Where it becomes necessary to close a workplace, employers should request that employees work from home where feasible and continue to pay employees as normal. Failure to comply with contractual obligations to pay employees in circumstances where they are available for work may lead to breach of contract and/or payment of wages claims against an employer.

Employers may also wish to review employment terms in their contracts for force majeure situations or where the threat of a pandemic necessitates closure of a workplace. Where it is not possible for employees to work from home in the event that a workplace must be closed, other measures should be considered. These may include requiring employees to take annual leave or unpaid leave until the health and safety risk is eliminated. Employers should examine their contracts of employment in the context of laying off employees in these circumstances.

Conclusion

As the situation develops, employers should act prudently and monitor government advice, as well as updates from the World Health Organisation.

Aside from public health concerns, flexible working emerged as a key issue in the recent general election and is on course to remain a focus of the new government in 2020. In light of this, employers should prepare their businesses for an increase in remote working requests and put in place appropriate policies.

The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.

About the author
Paula is an Associate on the Mason Hayes & Curran Employment Law & Benefits team. She advises employers and employees on all aspects of the employment relationship, relating to both contentious and non-contentious matters.
Paula advises clients on a daily basis on a range of workplace issues including employment contracts and workplace policies, grievances, redundancies, disciplinary investigations and dismissals. Paula regularly reviews employment contracts, handbooks, and policies and procedures for compliance with Irish law and best practice. She also advises clients in workplace disputes in the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court.