Business shut due to COVID - staff pay rights
Where employees are required to self-isolate due to COVID-19, they’re entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP), and they may also be due enhanced sick pay if you provide a contractual sick pay scheme. However, if the knock-on effect of their absence means that you temporarily close your business premises, you may have other employees who were able to attend work but now cannot do so. They can’t simply be paid SSP because they’re not sick or self-isolating.
Unless you have a contractual right to lay off staff, or they expressly agree to be laid off, employees who are fit to work but cannot do so due to the temporary closure of their workplace are still entitled to be paid their full normal rate of pay. So, the starting point is to check whether there’s an appropriate clause in each affected employee’s employment contract which enables you to impose an unpaid lay-off on them. Even then, to comply with the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, you should first meet with staff to explain your intentions and take account of their views. If you have no contractual right to unilaterally impose an unpaid lay-off, you’d need to obtain each employee’s express written consent to lay them off without pay, and if you fail to obtain that, then you must pay them full pay during the lay-off period. The other option is to see whether they’d be willing to agree to take a few days of paid annual leave.
Finally, even though the employment contract may provide for an unpaid lay-off, employees may nevertheless be entitled to statutory guarantee pay for workless days if they’ve been employed for at least one month, limited to a maximum of five days in any three-month period for a full-time employee (the five days is calculated pro rata for part-time employees). The amount of guarantee pay is based on the employee’s normal daily rate of pay subject to a maximum of, currently, £30.00 a day.
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