Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[arminisgod]

I've seen HR overrule management before. In these circumstances particularly it would be HR that would have the final say as they have to cover the company's back legally whereas your line manger won't probably be interested.

I'm talking Director level.

 

[arminisgod]

In which case you shouldn’t be returning to the workplace, unless you can significant benefit from being there.

Which we feel everybody can.. ie they will do more work at work.

 

[Paris]

Coronavirus: Leaked WHO files show China 'delayed releasing important information'

The delay led to frustration among World Health Organisation officials, despite their public praising of China for transparency,.

news.sky.com

Imagine my shock

 

[The binman chronicles]

I'm talking Director level.

Even so the director could say yes I want everyone back working, but if laws do not dictate that is required or cannot be realistically achieved safely in these times they will still have to defer the decision to HR to whether or not it can happen.

A few legal cases and the company could go to the wall. This the reason they have human resources and legal departments, if the company is small and in effect the director covers those roles then obviously it's up to them to take the risk.

 

[Brennan]

Which we feel everybody can.. ie they will do more work at work.

A ‘feeling’ isn’t sufficient in line with Government guidance.

The guidelines are quite clear.

Which is why the company I work for, who have 2500+ employees in the UK have told staff they won’t be returning to the office until July at the earliest and that then the office space will only be at 20% capacity.

Any staff who return must gain a demonstrable benefit from working from the office, such as access to file systems or operational systems which they cannot use properly when working remotely. Thinking they are lazy gets who will work harder in the office doesn’t count.

All implemented and dictated by....HR. As with most well run large enterprises.

 

[arminisgod]

Even so the director could say yes I want everyone back working, but if laws do not dictate that is required or cannot be realistically achieved safely in these times they will still have to defer the decision to HR to whether or not it can happen.

A few legal cases and the company could go to the wall. This the reason they have human resources and legal departments, if the company is small and in effect the director covers those roles then obviously it's up to them to take the risk.

But that doesn't apply. Our company has passed all the governments safety guidlines (as i'm guessing nearly all will), so no staff memebr can refuse to come to work on safety grounds

 

[arminisgod]

A ‘feeling’ isn’t sufficient in line with Government guidance.

The guidelines are quite clear.

Which is why the company I work for, who have 2500+ employees in the UK have told staff they won’t be returning to the office until July at the earliest and that then the office space will only be at 20% capacity.

Any staff who return must gain a demonstrable benefit from working from the office, such as access to file systems or operational systems which they cannot use properly when working remotely. Thinking they are lazy gets who will work harder in the office doesn’t count.

All implemented and dictated by....HR. As with most well run large enterprises.

well, our HR have been in contact with the Gov and NO home working will be offered here.

 

[Brennan]

From the Government’s own guidance:



Really couldn’t be more clear. If an employer is making staff return because they think staff will work harder that is not sufficient reason to tell staff to return.

 

[Blue Piper]

But that doesn't apply. Our company has passed all the governments safety guidlines (as i'm guessing nearly all will), so no staff memebr can refuse to come to work on safety grounds

As far as I am aware UK employment law allows for workers to refuse to attend work where there is a clear danger. Usually applied to asbestos or other major health and safety issues. Covid could fit into that bracket

 

[The binman chronicles]

But that doesn't apply. Our company has passed all the governments safety guidlines (as i'm guessing nearly all will), so no staff memebr can refuse to come to work on safety grounds

That is a different matter and has gone beyond that stage of HR approval.

In a large company that would have been approved by managers, H&S, HR and the leadership team that staff are safe to all come back. Even then if a staff member is reluctant to come back, be it they are considered vulnerable or they have contact with vulnerable people or that they can only get to work by public transport I would imagine the company would be receptive to finding a way through, maybe stay working from home or remain on furlough.

 

[Toast]

@Toast

Have supermarkets been told they can have more customers inside?

Sainsburys certainly seemed fuller, but they are still using the queue system to get in. Just no queue today, at all.

We are still using the same number.
No idea on anyone else mate.
Our queue is less, simply because loads of people must have gone back to work I would assume.

 

[orchard]

how are the endangering his well being? the risk from even catching COVID19 is miniscule.

We have already set our policy at work, with guidance from the UK Government from Furlough return. Anyone who refuses to come back will face disciplinary action. That is from the UK government's guidance

Looking forward to tossing all them EU rights in the bin mate?

 

[ramacca]

Johnson has ended lockdown, despite some of the 'experts' telling him 'it's too early, so he can ramp up his/Cummings/Vallance's et al herd immunity experiment. The inhumane herd immunity experiment was always the number one objective even if it meant creating a ring fenced death trap in care homes, care in the community and amongst the general population.

Boris Johnson told Italian PM he wanted 'herd immunity', Italy's health minister says
Boris Johnson told his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, in early March that the UK was aiming for “herd immunity” as part of its approach to coronavirus, a TV documentary claims.
Channel 4’s Dispatches spoke to the Italian health minister, Pierpaolo Sileri, who said this is what was said in a conversation between Johnson and Conte on 13 March. Sileri told the programme:

I spoke with Conte to tell President Conte that I’d tested positive [for coronavirus]. And he told me that he’d spoken with Boris Johnson and that they’d also talked about the situation in Italy. I remember he said, ‘He told me that he wants herd immunity’.
I remember that after hanging up, I said to myself that I hope Boris Johnson goes for a lockdown.

In late February and early March the government’s scientific adviser were relatively open about saying that they thought it would be impossible to entirely suppress coronavirus and that there were advantages from allowing “herd immunity” to build up. Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said this publicly, including in a Today programme interview on 13 March (the day the Johnson/Conte conversation took place). But very soon afterwards the government abruptly changed policy, in response to modelling saying that anything other than a policy aimed at full suppression of coronavirus would led to the NHS being overwhelmed.
Subsequently ministers became averse to being associated with the “herd immunity” concept, because that implied toleration or even support for people dying from coronavirus in manageable numbers, and now they insist it was never part of their policy.
According to PA Media, the Dispatches programme also quotes Prof Graham Medley, who sits on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), saying he was dismayed by government complacency at the early stages of the outbreak. Medley told the programme:

We already knew that this virus was going to cause an awful lot of death and disability and would require an awful lot of NHS resource ... so it was with some dismay that we were watching senior politicians behaving in a way that suggested that this was not something that was too serious.

Boris Johnson with his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte (left) in February. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/PA

 

[Charro]

well, our HR have been in contact with the Gov and NO home working will be offered here.

Why?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Who lends credence to Cummings ? Also, if I wanted to ‘instantly discount him’ I would not have bothered to even read the article. Which bits of his information to the committee did you think were hugely informative or new ? ...

I can't speak on behalf of other information presented to the committee, but I thought it was interesting in that it doesn't suggest we have a huge amount of wriggle room in terms of infections, despite quite significant 'freedom's being granted.