Even though the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme runs until to 31 October, many employers are having to make difficult decisions about the future of their businesses which can include making redundancies. Now is the time to make these difficult decisions, whilst furlough funding is still available from the government which can be used towards notice periods.

The government has published more information about upcoming changes to the furlough scheme. Here is a month by month summary of the changes.

The good news is that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been extended and will now run until 30 June 2020. But what happens when it ends?

Last month the government announced that under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), all UK employers will potentially be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary by ‘furloughing’ employees.

The number of employees working from home has increased significantly following government advice to avoid unnecessary travel and to encourage employees to work from home where possible.

On 20 March the EDPB made a statement on processing of personal data in the context of coronavirus. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) is the European body tasked with providing guidance aimed at ensuring consistent application of data protection regulations throughout member states.

Implementing remote or home working makes complying with data protection requirements more difficult as increased volumes of personal data are stored electronically and transmitted online. Here are 5 points worth considering to help maintain compliance.

There have been so many changes it can be easy to get confused. Here is the current position on recent and upcoming changes at the time of writing

The government has postponed the reforms to the IR35 tax rules until 2021.

The position has moved on a little since my update last week.

We are starting to get enquiries about how to deal with employees who may have been exposed to the coronavirus. If, as unfortunately seems likely, this becomes more prevalent, it is a topic that many employers will have to address.

There has been much case law over recent years about when on call workers are entitled to be paid. The Scottish EAT has now added to the vast amount of case law on the matter, by hearing the case of; Truslove and another v Scottish Ambulance Service. Truslove confirms the current position, which is that where a worker is required to remain at the workplace and available for work with a view to providing their services at some point, this will amount to working-time and not a rest period. This is the case even if the worker is allowed to sleep and so the worker is entitled to be paid for their time.