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The current status of the virus is that we are in the prevention phase, which is an attempt to avoid this spreading further and faster.
Please follow Government advice on this matter to try to protect yourself. We all have a responsibility to make sure we are fit and healthy for work.
All staff should make sure that their contact details are up to date, including your emergency contacts. Whilst it is not obligatory to join the office WhatsApp group, this could prove helpful to us all. Liam manages this group and you ask to be added by him.
Please make sure that we have sufficient of the following in each office, and encourage staff and clients to use them:
Please feel free to cleanse areas after client contact – perhaps get signage to explain what we are doing and why.
Wash and replace hand towels regularly.
The expense of this is secondary to our good health.
This page will be updated as more information becomes available.
Depending upon how this outbreak proceeds, we would encourage staff who believe they have the symptoms to self-isolate and to notify Sue by email in confidence of the situation.
If you have any special health circumstances that you think may be affected by the virus, please speak to Sue in confidence.
Until this is over, any time taken off work is to be reported exclusively and directly to Sue by email to sue@nicolsonaccountancy.co.uk or by text to 07734 575832.
In the event that the level of infection increases, then we may close the offices, or at very least encourage the public not to visit our offices.
We would also discourage movement between the offices and direct client contact. The website and email footers will be amended to reflect this.
Clients and the public will be advised that work will be strictly prioritised in a manner yet to be determined.
If we have to consider the closure of one or more offices, then we would invite staff to work from home using their own computers. Guidance will be issued on how to connect to the office network using Remote Desktop.
Staff are encouraged to plan for this worst case scenario and to identify if they may need assistance or equipment to be able to connect their home computer to the network.
At this stage, you should also consider if you are able to access all the necessary information via the network and ensure that all information that requires to be scanned and saved on the network is scanned and made available.
It may be that there is a need to access physical documentation in the closed office.
In these circumstances, we may need to schedule exclusive access to the office for a period of time, so that information can be collected to allow work to continue from home. This will potentially also be an opportunity for others to have documentation scanned.
There’s no legal (‘statutory’) right to pay if someone is not sick but cannot work because they:
But it’s good practice for their employer to treat it as sick leave and follow their usual sick pay policy or agree for the time to be taken as holiday. Otherwise there’s a risk the employee will come to work because they want to get paid. They could then spread the virus, if they have it.
The employee must tell their employer as soon as possible if they cannot work. It’s helpful to let the employer know the reason and how long they are likely to be off for.
In case coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads more widely in the UK, employers should consider some simple steps to help protect the health and safety of staff.
It’s good practice for employers to:
Employers must not single anyone out. For example, they must not treat an employee differently because of their race or ethnicity.
The workplace’s usual sick leave and pay entitlements apply if someone has coronavirus.
Employees should let their employer know as soon as possible if they’re not able to go to work.
The employer might need to make allowances if their workplace sickness policy requires evidence from the employee. For example, the employee might not be able to get a sick note (‘fit note’) if they’ve been told to self-isolate for 14 days.
Find out more about self-isolating on GOV.UK.
There’s no legal (‘statutory’) right to pay if someone is not sick but cannot work because they:
But it’s good practice for their employer to treat it as sick leave and follow their usual sick pay policy or agree for the time to be taken as holiday. Otherwise there’s a risk the employee will come to work because they want to get paid. They could then spread the virus, if they have it.
The employee must tell their employer as soon as possible if they cannot work. It’s helpful to let the employer know the reason and how long they are likely to be off for.
If an employee is not sick but their employer tells them not to come to work, they should get their usual pay. For example, if someone has returned from China or another affected area and their employer asks them not to come in.
Employees are entitled to time off work to help someone who depends on them (a ‘dependant’) in an unexpected event or emergency. This would apply to situations to do with coronavirus. For example:
There’s no statutory right to pay for this time off, but some employers might offer pay depending on the contract or workplace policy.
The amount of time off an employee takes to look after someone must be reasonable for the situation. For example, they might take 2 days off to start with, and if more time is needed, they can book holiday.