10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10808
The UK Government provided a tardy response to the coronavirus pandemic, whichwould seem to have led to widespread community transmission and a high death toll.The measures taken in relation to the labour market were disappointing, being predominantly concerned with protecting business, while limited assistance was provided to the most vulnerable, precarious workers. Jobs have been preserved by such measures, but it is unclear what will happen as the Government schemes are phased out. Crucial issues relating to health and safety at work have been downplayed during the crisis, racial concerns have emerged and gender-related inequalities are being given little attention by the Government. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has engaged with the Government on policy matters, resulting in some significant alterations to measures taken. Unions have also been prominent in discussions regarding the terms of return to work. This report was originally submitted on 10 April and has now been updated, being accurate up to 7 June 2020.
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: United Kingdom                                              Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Tonia Novitz                                                                        Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
Tonia.Novitz@bristol.ac.uk                                            Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                                  ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                   https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10808




          COVID-19 and Labour Law: United Kingdom
                       Tonia Novitz *


                                                   Abstract
     The UK Government provided a tardy response to the coronavirus pandemic. The measures
     taken are disappointing, being predominantly concerned with protecting business and
     preserving their confidence, while limited assistance is being provided to the most vulnerable,
     precarious workers. Crucial issues relating to health and safety have been downplayed, while
     gender-related issues have been given little attention. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has
     engaged with the Conservative Government but seems to have had little influence to date.
     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law; Statutory sick pay; Unemployment benefits; Job retention
     scheme; Health and Safety; Gender-related issues.




 1. General Framework: An Introduction to the UK Situation.


     When a global pandemic was declared on 11 March 2020 by the World Health
 Organisation (WHO), there were at that time only 460 cases of coronavirus and 8 Covid-19
 related deaths. At the time of writing (on 10 April 2020), there are now 65,077 confirmed
 cases and 7,978 deaths in hospital. Testing has been limited to hospital admissions since 12
 March, and the death toll does not include deaths in care homes or in the community. As a
 result, the official statistics understate the impact of the virus.
     Initially, the UK Government message was that the priority was to keep the economy
 going, build ‘herd immunity’ in the bulk of the population, and accept that there would be
 casualties (affecting predominantly the elderly ‘with underlying health conditions’)1. It was
 only when academic modelling predicted that unconstrained transmission could lead to




 *
   Tonia Novitz, Professor of Labour Law, University of Bristol, UK.
 1 Bosley S., ‘Coronavirus: health experts fear epidemic will “let rip” through UK’, The Guardian 15 March 2020,
 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/coronavirus-health-experts-fear-epidemic-will-let-rip-
 through-uk, accessed 10 April 2020.
    Tonia Novitz                                                                             Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                            Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                               Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                                 Section: National Reports




more than 500,000 deaths and the current policy to 250,000 deaths, that significant further
measures were taken2.
    On 19 March it was formally announced that the elderly and those vulnerable due to
pre-existing health conditions or pregnancy should self-isolate for a period of 12 weeks. On
20 March schools were closed (apart from to children of critical workers and vulnerable
children receiving free school meals) as were all ‘non-essential’ businesses3. Everyone was
required to stay home on ‘lockdown’ from 23 March, if not engaged in critical work.
Children could be moved between custodial parents, but the message has been to go out
only for personal exercise, shopping, for medical needs or to assist others. If anyone does
go out, they should stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times and wash their
hands on return home4. These instructions do not apply to ‘critical’ or ‘frontline’ workers in
health and social care, schools and childcare, key public services, local and national
government, food and other necessary goods, public safety and national security, transport,
utilities, communication and financial services5.


2. The impact of the spread of the Covid-19 disease and UK Government measures
on employment relations and working conditions.

    The first empirical study undertaken as to the social effects of the virus was published
on 1 April 2020, covering the period up until 25 March 2020 (two days after the lockdown).
It found that 57% of workers engaged in less paid work over the past week than usually
and that 8% of workers in employment a month ago had already lost their job due to
COVID-19. It was the youngest and most precarious low-income workers who were
disproportionately affected6. It should also be noted that since 23 March 2020, employment
tribunals have been providing only preliminary and case management hearings, with
substantive matters put on hold for the time being7.




2 Grey S., MacAskill A., ‘Special Report: Johnson listened to his scientists about coronavirus - but they were slow to sound the
alarm’ Reuters 7 April 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-path-
speci/special-report-johnson-listened-to-his-scientists-about-coronavirus-but-they-were-slow-to-sound-the-
alarm-idUSKBN21P1VF, accessed 10 April 2020.
3 The list of businesses and venues shut is available at:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/87690
5/300320_Revised_Guidance.pdf, accessed 10 April 2020.
4-https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-

do/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do, accessed 10 April 2020.
5-https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-

provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision, accessed
10 April 2020.
6 Adams-Prassl A., Boneva T., Golin M., Rauh C., Inequality in the Impact of the Coronavirus Shock: New Survey

Evidence for the UK, in Cambridge-INET Working Paper Series, No: 2020/10, 2020.
7-https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-message-from-presidents-of-the-

employment-tribunals-in-england-wales-and-in-scotland/, accessed 10 April 2020.

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    Tonia Novitz                                                                      Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                     Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                        Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                          Section: National Reports




2.1 Government measures taken and their effects to date.

2.1.1 Statutory sick pay and access to unemployment benefits.

    UK statutory sick pay is set at a very low level (£95.85 per week from 6 April 2020)
which is less than 30% of the national minimum wage8. It is only available to ‘employees’,
so not usually those in precarious forms of employment and only those who would
normally earn at least £118 per week9. Only agency workers who are ‘employees’ of an
agency can claim10. The right now arises from day 1 (not day 4 as previously would be the
case) to those self-isolating with suspected coronavirus11. It does not cover those told to
isolate for 12 weeks on the basis that they are elderly or otherwise vulnerable12.
    Anyone not eligible for statutory sick pay and without work can claim for Universal
Credit, the current unemployment benefit. The Government has changed official guidance
so: ‘those affected by coronavirus … can receive up to a month’s advance up front without
physically attending a jobcentre’13. The usual threshold income level has also been
temporarily changed to enable readier access for precarious workers, whether termed
‘workers’ or self-employed. The Government is also changing requirements for those
already covered by the scheme but having to self-isolate due to coronavirus. However,
levels of income under this scheme (although increased from a standard rate of £317.82 to
£409.89 per month) remain very low. As at 1 April 2020, 950,000 people had applied for
Universal Credit14.


2.1.2 Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

   On 17 March 2020, the Chancellor set out various measures for business to assist them
in a package totalling £330 billion15. On 20 March, he announced a further Job Retention
Scheme,16 which enables an employer to ‘furlough’ its workers, namely to suspend them so
that they do no further work, while the Government pays 80% of their wages up to a

8 John Hendy QC, The Gaps in the Government’s Coronavirus Income Protection Plans, Institute of Employment
Rights, 2020, 1-2.
9 See the UK Employment Rights Act 1996, s.230 for the distinction under UK law between ‘workers’,

‘employees’ and (by implication) the self-employed.
10-See    the Government guidance which does not acknowledge how rare this is:
https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/eligibility.
11 See the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (amended by the Coronavirus Act 2020); and

the Statutory Sick Pay (Coronavirus) (Suspension of Waiting Days and General Amendment) Regulations
2020.
12 See Art. 3 of the Regulations. Also, Ferguson, D. ‘FAQs: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ House of

Commons Briefing Paper, 9 April 2020, 21.
13 https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/coronavirus/.
14 Booth R., Rawlinson K. ‘950,000 apply for universal credit in two weeks of UK lockdown’, in The Guardian, 1 April

2020, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/01/950000-apply-for-universal-credit-in-two-weeks-
of-uk-lockdown, accessed 6 April 2020. There are no more recent statistics yet available.
15https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-of-the-exchequer-rishi-sunak-on-covid19-response.
16-https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-chancellor-rishi-sunak-provides-an-updated-statement-

on-coronavirus, accessed 10 April 2020.

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     Tonia Novitz                                                                 Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                 Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                    Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                      Section: National Reports




maximum of £2500 per month (and additional tax-related costs). The worker in question
needs to have been an ‘employee’ under UK tax laws, hired by that employer as at 28
February 2020. Partial reduction of hours or tasks under the scheme is not possible. Much
was made of the fact that this could include precarious workers on zero hours contracts, or
casual or gig workers, although it has been pointed out that this is in practice highly
unlikely17. This is not simply a job protection scheme. It enables the employer to choose
whether to furlough, retaining the option for the sake of convenience to dismiss an
employee (or initiate redundancies). The limitations of UK dismissal laws have been
exposed in this process18. The Job Retention Scheme has yet to be placed on a statutory
footing, will only allow for retrospective claims by employers for wage costs at the end of
April 2020, and has now been revised for a third time19.


2.1.3 Self-employed Income Support Scheme.

    The Self-employed Income Support Scheme (SISS) was announced on 26 March. It is
formally comparable to the Job Retention Scheme in that 80% of a self-employed person’s
profits will be paid by the Government for up to three months, capped at £2,500 per
month. This requires the claimant to have received less than £50,000 in profits either the
previous year or averaged over three years and to have been self-employed for three years.
The Inland Revenue will contact those eligible and make a complete one-off payment in
June 2020. While this might seem to help those precarious workers who do not qualify for
protection under the Job Retention Scheme, but nothing would be paid to them for three
months20. Nor will the Scheme apply to those who do not make more than half their
income through being self-employed or who have changed the basis on which they work in
the past three years. It has been predicted that this will mean that it only covers 62% of
self-employed people21.




17 Hendy, n.8 above, 8 – 10.
18-For  three excellent blogs on the subject by Bogg, A., Ford, M.:
https://uklabourlawblog.com/2020/03/23/legislating-in-times-of-crisis-the-coronavirus-job-retention-
scheme-by-alan-bogg-and-michael-ford/;          https://uklabourlawblog.com/2020/03/31/not-legislating-in-a-
crisis-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-part-2-by-michael-ford-and-alan-bogg/;                        and
https://uklabourlawblog.com/2020/04/06/furloughing-and-fundamental-rights-the-case-of-paid-annual-
leave-by-alan-bogg-and-michael-ford/.
19https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-

scheme?utm_source=22073d98-c3f4-47e3-b012-
3fa9f1a81e4e&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate#payroll-
consolidation.
20 Hendy, n.8 above, 13 – 17.
21 Discussed in Hirst D et al, ‘Coronavirus: support for businesses’, House of Commons Briefing Paper, 3 April

2020, 13-14.

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     Tonia Novitz                                                                      Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                      Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                         Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                           Section: National Reports




2.2 Government omissions.

    Apart from these obviously identifiable limitations in the coverage of Government
measures, there have been further notable omissions in regulatory engagement, including
health and safety and gender-related issues.
    The most prominent health and safety concerns have arisen for critical frontline
workers. A disproportionate number of nurses and doctors started dying from Covid-19,
having raised concerns regarding shortages of adequate personal protective equipment
(PPE).22 This is also an issue for care workers, and there is growing evidence of an
increasing incidence of coronavirus in residential care homes23. Care workers also fear that,
with a lack of PPE, they are spreading the virus in home care settings24. Transport workers
have also died, including London bus drivers25. Concerns regarding the viability of social
distancing at a range of worksites has been raised, including the House of Commons
following the diagnosis of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, with Covid-1926. Only
‘employees’ can refuse to work on health and safety grounds, and nothing has been done
by the Government to extend this entitlement to more precarious workers and the self-
employed, or indeed to facilitate such refusals where appropriate27. Notably, the
Independent Workers Union of Great Britain is now bringing judicial review proceedings
to challenge the inadequacy of the Government schemes for those in precarious work, as
well as the Government’s treatment of health and safety at work28.
    There are also gender-related issues that have not been addressed. When the schools
closed and everyone who could do so was told to work from home, many parents
(especially women) ended up carrying a double shift of home-schooling and working
responsibilities. Of these, single parents and those who have smaller accommodation
experience greater difficulties29. Pregnant women have also been placed in a difficult
position because they have been instructed to stay home. The evidence is that it is harder
to perform lower income jobs at home, so that those who are poorest will have reduced

22  Weaver M., ‘Doctor who pleaded for more hospital PPE dies of coronavirus’ The Guardian 9 April 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/consultant-who-pleaded-for-more-nhs-hospital-ppe-
dies-of-coronavirus, accessed 10 April 2020.
23 Booth R., ‘Hundreds of UK care home deaths not added to official coronavirus toll’ The Guardian 9 April 2020,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/covid-19-hundreds-of-uk-care-home-deaths-not-added-
to-official-toll.
24   Hayes L., ‘They Don’t Really Care About Our Carers’, in Tribune 27 March 2020,
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/03/they-dont-really-care-about-our-carers, accessed 10 April 2020.
25 Reynolds R., ‘London bus drivers are dying from coronavirus. Demands to protect them better are growing’, in CNN 8

April        2020,      https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/uk/coronavirus-london-bus-driver-deaths-gbr-
intl/index.html, accessed 2 April 2020.
26 ‘Coronavirus: Calls for better workplace social distancing guidance’ BBC News, 28 March 2020,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52076504, accessed 10 April 2020.
27 See the Employment Rights Act, ss 44 and 100; also Bales, K., ‘COVID19 and the Future of Work’,

https://legalresearch.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2020/04/covid19-and-the-future-of-work/comment-page-1/, accessed
10 April 2020.
28   https://iwgb.org.uk/en/post/iwgb-to-sue-uk-government-over-its-failure-to-protect-precarious-workers,
accessed 10 April 2020.
29 Day A., ‘This Is How Coronavirus Is Affecting Single-Parent Families’, in Huffpost 23 March 2020,

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-single-parents-hit-hard-
financially_uk_5e75062bc5b63c3b64900ef6, accessed 10 April 2020.

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     Tonia Novitz                                                            Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                            Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                               Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                 Section: National Reports




entitlements to maternity benefits as a result30. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling
for improved access to sick pay, but also ‘support for parents who need to take time out of
work to care for kids’ and ‘more help for families’31. However, there is no indication that
the Government will take such measures.


3. The Role of the Social Partners

   When announcing the Job Retention Scheme, the Chancellor put on record his ‘thanks
to the Trades Union Congress, the CBI and other business groups, for our constructive
conversations’32, and the TUC certainly did welcome the Scheme at the time33. It was also
announced that the SISS was ‘designed after extensive engagement with stakeholders
including the TUC’ and representatives of small business34. However, the limitations of
these schemes may indicate the limited influence the TUC wields with this Conservative
Government. These remain measures which, like most of the current Government policies,
are primarily aimed at maintaining business confidence, not protection for the most
vulnerable at work.



Copyright © 2020 Tonia Novitz. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License




30 Adams-Prassl et al n.6; and Ferguson n.11 above, 19 – 20.
31 https://www.tuc.org.uk/CoronavirusProtectingWorkers, accessed 10 April 2020.
32-https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-chancellor-rishi-sunak-provides-an-updated-statement-

on-coronavirus, accessed 10 April 2020.
33 See Ferguson n.11, 4.
34-https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-gives-support-to-millions-of-self-employed-

individuals, accessed 10 April 2020.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10808                                                              6
