| Covid Plan B: What do you need to know? Since July of last year, life has gone back to some sort of normal. However, with the lifting of Covid restrictions, mandatory mask wearing and social distancing, it’s impossible to ignore the rising cases of the virus sweeping the UK. Also, with the new discovery of the variant ‘Omicron’, there has been heightened public fear over what this means for aspects of life such as travel, work and social activities. Thankfully, with vaccines and testing being rolled out at a higher rate than ever before, hospital admissions and deaths are at a steady plateau. Unfortunately, rates of infection seem to be rising in these winter months and the Government has been called to roll out its ‘Covid plan B’. What is Plan B and when will it happen? Unsurprisingly, Plan B is the back-up plan for the Government’s current Covid strategy (Plan A). Plan A has a focus on testing and vaccination to help prevent the spread and keep the NHS from becoming overwhelmed. Plan B would reintroduce measures such as face coverings, social distancing, mandatory vaccine-only settings and working from home. The first step of this was put into place last week, with UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, reinforcing mandatory mask wearing on public transport and shops, highlighting a step backwards once again into stricter measures due to the new variant. It should be noted that Plan B will only apply to England as Scotland and Wales are still currently enforcing such measures. Although Government spokespeople are adamant that Plan B is not to be fully implemented at the moment, they have suggested that they will if cases continue to rise, and the new variant becomes uncontainable. With a trio of winter illnesses- Covid, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus- heading towards us at a fast rate, all at the same time, scientists are concerned that the current situation will only worsen, and change will need to be made to counteract it. However, as we have seen over the past year of yo-yo lockdowns and restrictions, our Covid situation seems to be difficult to predict, and there is no way to know when Plan B will be fully implemented, but the first steps towards this are starting to be seen. Plan B and Businesses- how will they be affected? Most likely, firms will have to return to working from home if the strategy comes into play. For most businesses, a plan should already be in place for this due to the uncertainty we have faced over the past year or so and working from home shouldn’t cause any huge disruption to daily working life. For additional guidance on home working, take a look at our previous blog post here: https://ehr.websitedev.work/home-and-hybrid-working-a-guide-for-employers/ For those who do not have a plan in place however, there is a risk of staff frustration and a risk of staff choosing to leave for a company with better management and leadership. So, it’s definitely worthwhile to start planning for this instance as soon as possible. How should employers prepare for plan B implementation? Planning is the most crucial aspect of preparing for Plan B implementation. There are a number of steps that should be considered in order to keep employees safe. These steps include ensuring employers have contractual rights to change working location, face covering enforcement and safety measures (for those who cannot work from home), the constant review of Government Covid guidelines to ensure they are ahead of the game, and finally, risk assessments with the help of HR to ensure they are making informed decisions about employee safety. Our Support and Advice We are always happy to debate the pros/cons, dos/don’ts with you so please do talk to us if we can help in any way, we are here to support you. Please note, this briefing is accurate at the time of writing, it is not intended to replace advice so please do call us if you have any queries. |
