Employers warned to ‘tread carefully’ with returning staff

UNLESS employees have a legitimate reason, they will have to return to work in line with obligations set out in the State’s roadmap and ‘Return to Work Safely’ protocols, experts say.

Earlier this month, the Taoiseach insisted that people who refused an offer to return to work would have their pandemic unemployment payment of €350 per week cut off.

Experts said employers need to ‘tread carefully’ and should start planning how they can encourage their workers with childcare responsibilities, health concerns or general anxiety to return to work on a case-by-case basis. If they have a blanket response of not paying workers who are refusing to return they could leave themselves open to discrimination claims.

Small firms representatives have said they have been dealing with

‘serious concerns’ from their members on how to negotiate a return to work as the country aims to return to normality.

A spokesman for the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association said small business owners are concerned about the time it will take to act on a refusal to return to work and the effect this could have on their business.

‘Any HR procedure takes a bit of time to get through in relation to actioning someone who does not return to work and they are worried that business may suffer as a result of time taken to go through what may end up in termination, and then recruiting a replacement,’ the Isme spokesman said.

Legitimate concerns could apply where a person has health problems, where they or a person in their household have an underlying health condition or they feel their employer hasn’t followed the State’s safety protocols correctly.

Catherine O’Flynn, head of employment & benefits at William Fry and chair of the Law Society’s Employment & Equality Law Committee, said: ‘From an employer’s perspective, they have to make sure that they are following the back-to-work protocols and the roadmap... to make sure the workplace is safe. If not, they will be in a very difficult position.

‘The best advice would be to have consultation and communication with workers now as this could be a difficult issue for employers as we move through the various phases of the roadmap.’

Head of social policy for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Laura Bambrick, said the protocols were designed to ensure a safe working environment and that helplines are available for workers to report employers failing to follow the rules.