This article discusses the impact of Covid-19 on employment law in the UK.
When signs of the coronavirus were first detected in the late Winter of 2019, the public failed to anticipate the disruption it would cause to employers. With business closures and safety precautions put into place, the UK economy suffered tremendously.
However, nearly two years after the outbreak which shook the world, how has the pandemic affected employment law?
The impact of Covid-19 on employment law for businesses – the statistics
Earlier this year, ONS reported that 55% of businesses found great difficulty in implementing new safety procedures due to the financial strain caused by the pandemic. More specifically, around 47% of respondents noticed a slight increase in costs, with another 8% noticing a large increase.
These statistics, have shone light on the ramifications faced by both employees and employers after the pandemic.
Fewer forms of employment available to the public
According to House of Commons information on Coronavirus, employment levels are lower than they were before the outbreak. One reason for this decline could be due to the fear of employees testing positive for COVID-19. Under government guidelines, individuals are required to self-isolate for five days (missing a week’s worth of work). Ultimately this could take a huge toll on small businesses who have a handful of employees as it could potentially create disruption in the workplace.
A further explanation for this decline is that businesses may lack the funds to employ new workers. During and after the pandemic, businesses suffered from a slow economy as the public was warned to stay home. This triggered financial unrest between businesses such as those in the retail, transportation, and food industry. In other words, less profit means that businesses cannot afford to employ new staff members. This further reflects the everlasting impact the pandemic has had on employers.
Lower pay
Another area of employment law which has been largely affected is pay. As previously highlighted, employers are facing added pressure to preserve their business after COVID-19. This means that most often than not, employers struggle to pay their employees’ wages. For instance, the RMT strikes are a prime example. In the month of June, thousands of union workers went on strike in the hopes of receiving a higher wage as a result of high inflation rates. The rail industry’s inability to meet the demands of the RMT workers were mainly down to the fact that they lacked the funds to pay for higher wages.
Increase in redundancies
Redundancy is a further area of employment law which has seen a rise in the last couple of years.
The aftermath of the pandemic (together with Brexit) has meant that companies and businesses have had to reduce expenses. To avoid this, employers turn to decreasing the number of employees to accommodate the needs of the business. This includes making employees redundant.
Redundancy is a type of dismissal which occurs when the employer no longer needs the role to be fulfilled or when the employer seeks to change the number of roles. Due to the lack of sales and added business expenses, redundancy might be the only option to decrease expenditures and to preserve the business. As our articles have previously shown, several large businesses have made headlines for the large volume of redundancies made. For example, P&O Ferries faced media scrutiny after making 786 redundancies in March 2022. P&O Ferries explained that it was mandatory for the survival of the company; further underlining the economic struggle.
Elsewhere, Co-op was also in the news after it was revealed that they were planning to make 400 job cuts at the Manchester head office; a move which was made to combat the rise of inflation.
Remote working
Due to the government guidelines aimed at reducing the spreading of the disease, workers (except for key workers in the medical, educational, and retail profession) were required to work from home in efforts to contain the virus in 2020. However, two years on, remote working still seems to be more widely adopted than before. This form of working had already been on the rise. However, this seems to be changing as recent news updates have shown employers drifting away from home-working. For instance, Apple employees are now required to work in the office for a minimum of 3 days a week. CEO, Tim Cook, claims that this move will promote a more flexible and convenient approach for service users.
Similarly, technology giant Tesla has also required employees to work from the office for 40 hours a week.
What is the impact of Covid-19 on employment law?
This article has reinforced the notion that the pandemic has had a fundamental impact on employers. Areas surrounding pay, redundancies, and methods of working have seen a huge change. However, while workers have learnt to live with the repercussions, employers are seemingly drifting away from some of the measures created during the pandemic such as remote working. Instead, we are seeing the rise of ‘hybrid working’, in which staff split their working time between the home and the office. The findings of the ONS survey conducted in 2022, were that there has been a rise in hybrid working between the January of this year and the months following it.
This brings us to ask the question: Will there ever be a point where businesses can run in the same way it did prior to pandemic? Or will trends such as ‘hybrid working’ be the new normal?
Image used under CC courtesy of Elizabeth