Important COVID considerations for employers

COVID-19 has put a strain on many businesses and extended the responsibilities of employers to keep their staff and customers safe. It’s important that employers follow new health guidelines, including keeping an updated COVID Safe Plan (for all Victorian businesses).

There are a number of financial, legal and HR factors to take into account when navigating this turbulent time. So, here are some key areas of concern for employers as we come out of lockdown and move into “Covid-Normal” business life. Plus tools you can use to help address these concerns.

1. Mandatory COVID Safe Plans for Victorian Businesses

What is a COVID Safe Plan?

Your COVID Safe Plan helps protect your workers, customers and visitors and to prepare for a suspected or confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) in your workplace.

Every employer must complete their COVID Safe plan by 11.59pm on 7 August 2020.

Businesses must review and update their COVID Safe Plans routinely, especially when restrictions or public health advice changes. For example, scarves, bandannas and face shields alone are no longer an acceptable face covering in Victoria, so any face covering requirements in your workplace (and therefore in your Covid Safe Plan) must reflect that.

Organisations with multiple worksites must complete a COVID Safe Plan for each worksite. Some higher-risk industries or workplaces have additional requirements of employers and employees. Click here to see High-Risk COVID Safe Plan details.

A COVID Safe Plan must set out:

Your actions to help prevent the introduction of coronavirus (COVID-19) in your workplace; and
The level of face-covering or personal protective equipment (PPE) required for your workforce; and
How you will prepare for, and respond to, a suspected or confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) in your workplace; and
This plan must demonstrate how you will meet all of the requirements set out by the Victorian Government.
Some higher-risk industries or workplaces have additional requirements of employers and employees.

Click here to download the official Victorian Government COVID-Safe Plan template.

QR Code Visitor Scanning

If you’re a public-facing business, part of your COVID-Safe Plan should involve how you will be tracking and screening people coming in and out of your business.

There are plenty of apps and new software popping up to help businesses with this process. Do your research and find out what will work best for your business and effectively keep everyone safe.

Some QR Visitor Scanning Options include:

You can find templates and further guidelines on how to create a Covid Safe Plan here.

2. Obligations and concerns when working remotely: OH&S, Tax and Productivity

What OH&S responsibilities do you have when your staff are working from home?

Safework Australia has the most comprehensive information available on this subject, and we recommend you check out their website for full details.

But to summarise, as an employer, you have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of your workers. WHS Laws still apply, even if they are working from home.

So you should actively consult with your employees about their working from home situation to ensure there is minimal risk.

Talk to your employees about:

Guidance on what is a safe home office environment, including workstation set up. You may require your employees to provide photos or videos of their home work space so you can ensure it meets OH&S guidelines.
Allow workers to (safely) borrow any necessary work station equipment from the office to take to the home.
Require workers to familiarise themselves and comply with good ergonomic practices.
Maintain regular communication with workers, don’t leave your employees feeling isolated.
Provide access to information and support for mental health and wellbeing services.
Appoint a contact person in the business who workers can talk to about any concerns related to working from home.

You must also think about how your existing policies and procedures apply when working from home, including:

Notification of incidents, injuries, hazards and changes in circumstances, and
Consultation and review of work health and safety processes, and
Attendance, timesheets, leave and other entitlements and arrangements.

What tax benefits are available to employees working at home?

In response to COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns, the ATO has introduced a shortcut method to calculating expenses of working from home with minimal record keeping required.

You will be able to use the shortcut method to calculate your working at home expenses for the period from:

1 March 2020 to 30 June 2020 in the 2019–20 income year, and
1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020 in the 2020–21 income year.

We obviously recommend you (and your employees) speak to your accountant to ensure everyone is compliant in their tax return while claiming any working from home expenses.

More information is available on the ATO website.

How can you manage employee productivity remotely?

We have an excellent article on how to work from home productively, which you can read here. However, we would like to throw in a couple of COVID-specific tips here too.

Such as:

Your employees are adjusting to a significant life change and may be finding it difficult to cope during lockdown, and it is important to consider that this may impact productivity and make allowances accordingly. Encourage your workers to speak to you if they are struggling, and create a safe and open dialogue surrounding KPIs and expectations.
If possible, offer more flexible working hours to employees. They may be sharing their working space with family members and/or sharing the role of parent, home-school teacher and babysitter throughout the day. They find it easier to work later at night, or even on weekends so they can alternate roles with their partner throughout the week.
Use technology to help!
- Zoom and Teams can ensure your team is well-connected and able to communicate freely with eachother while working remotely in different places.
- Collaboratively organisation tools like Trello can help teams and departments create workflows and to-do lists.
- Moving to cloud-based software means everyone can securely access accurate data from anywhere.
- Formalise and digitise your policies and procedures so that employees can access them and follow them from home. Consider how these policies and procedures might need to be adjusted to suit remote working.

3. Redundancies and how to “do the right thing”.

Fair Work is the first place to go whenever you have a questions or concern regarding employment conditions and regulations. We recommend you have a look on their website.

What if I need to make an employee redundant?

There are a number of things employers need to be aware of before ending an employee’s employment. Under the Fair Work Act, an employee is protected from being dismissed because of a temporary absence due to illness or injury. These protections continue to apply to employees whose employment is impacted by coronavirus.

The Fair Work Act also includes protections against being dismissed because of:

discrimination
a reason that is harsh, unjust or unreasonable, or in a way that is harsh, unjust or unreasonable
another protected right.

If an employee loses their job because of the impacts of coronavirus, their entitlements will depend on how and why their employment ends. For example, if employment ends because the business closes down permanently, or because the role is no longer required, the employee may be entitled to redundancy pay.

How do I manage my relationship with good employees who are only being let go due to reduced cash flow in lockdown?

It is an extremely difficult time for everyone and letting a loyal team member go is a tough call to make. A lot of employers have described turmoil of making such a decision, and lamented over wanting to be able to “do the right thing” for their staff, but also needing to be realistic about the survival of the business.

Be transparent about why they are losing their job, and whether you are open to having them back again once things pick up again in future.

Give them as much notice as possible, encourage them to find another position elsewhere. If appropriate, provide resources for them to seek other employment or upskill.