Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Employers have legal duty of care over SARS dangers

by Personnel Today 6 May 2003
by Personnel Today 6 May 2003

While the Department of Health is currently playing down risks of a SARS
epidemic in the UK, employers must take sensible precautions to minimise any
danger to staff

With the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS virus) daily in the news
and television pictures of a deserted Beijing, what should employers in the UK
be doing to protect their employees and their business from the effects of this
outbreak?

The Department of Health (DoH) does not presently recommend the mass
quarantining of travellers returning from the Far East, and the secretary of
state for health has resisted calls to make SARS a notifiable disease.

Government advice to schools and colleges suggests that "in exceptional
circumstances" where an individual has been exposed to a known SARS case
in an infected region, it would be prudent to monitor their health for a period
of 10 days. It is not, however, general policy for all those returning from
such areas.

Risk assessment

Despite government policy, many schools and some employers are taking
additional steps including requiring persons returning from infected areas to
remain away from school or work for a period of 10 days after re-entering the
UK. Whether this is necessary will depend on each individual business.

An employer has a legal duty to take reasonable care of the health and
safety of its employees. At this stage, each employer should carry out a risk
assessment of employees’ likely exposure to infectious individuals during the
course of their work, taking account of the advice from the DoH.

Entitlement to pay

The outcome of that assessment will determine what steps – if any – the
employer needs to take. For some employers, this will certainly mean bringing
staff back from offices in infected areas (if this has not already been done)
and considering whether to require those returning from travel in risk areas to
remain away from work for 10 days so their health can continue to be monitored.

What about entitlement to pay during any period of enforced leave? Clearly,
employees returning from business on behalf of their employer should be paid in
full.

The situation is less clear cut for those (if any) who choose to travel
against government advice, ie, on holiday. Any employer simply withholding pay
in respect of enforced leave in these circumstances risks a claim of unlawful
deduction from wages and/or constructive dismissal even if they seek to
introduce a policy purporting to give them that right.

Employees who present themselves as fit and willing to work have a common
law right to be paid unless the contract expressly specifies otherwise. Any
such term must specify the precise circumstances in which pay can be
contractually withheld. Employers would need to seek agreement from employees
as to the introduction of any new term in the usual way.

There are similar difficulties in, for example, requiring an employee to
take additional holidays to cover any period where the company requires them to
remain away from work.

While it may be possible in some circumstances to introduce a policy
requiring employees to take holidays at a specific time, what about situations
where the employee does not have sufficient holiday to cover that period?

Any employer introducing such policies or non-payment policies should ensure
that all employees are made fully aware of the provisions and bear in mind
potential difficulties of enforcement.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Employers should keep up to date with the DoH advice
(www.doh.gov.uk/sars/index.htm) and ensure that further risk assessments are
carried out in the light of any changes.

By Sue Nickson, Partner and national head of employment,
Hammonds

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Jobseekers believe first impressions last
next post
Socpo calls for services to reflect 24/7 society

You may also like

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders receive 400% pay rise

4 Jul 2025

FCA to extend misconduct rules beyond banks

2 Jul 2025

‘Decisive action’ needed to boost workers’ pensions

2 Jul 2025

Business leaders’ drop in confidence impacts headcount

2 Jul 2025

Why we need to rethink soft skills in...

1 Jul 2025

Five misconceptions about hiring refugees

20 Jun 2025

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+