Hina Belitz is hosting a webinar on COVID-19, mental health, stress, and suicide in the workplace. The webinar will discuss COVID-19 cases in the workplace, including an employee dismissed for refusing travel and an employee who walked out over coronavirus fears. It will also cover statutory sick pay changes and the furlough scheme. Finally, it will examine mental health issues arising from the pandemic, including an example of an employee who was suicidal and blamed their employer.

1. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz,
hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
COVID-19 and the Workplace,
Mental Health, Stress and Suicide
Partners Employment Lawyers
Webinar
Thursday 30th April 2020
www.partnerslaw.co.uk
02073746546
All legal work is carried out through Excello Law Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

2. • Hina Belitz is a senior employment lawyer,
author and trainer with over 20 years’
experience building her career within major
City Law firms including DLA Piper, Pinsent
Masons and Dentons before establishing her
own practice in 2006.
• Hina acts for a wide range of companies as
well as for international royalty, and UK-based
embassies advising on employment law,
strategy and board level decision making. She
also advises senior executives on termination
and settlement agreements.
• The most substantial part of her work is with
Corporations advising on law and strategy in
areas such as redundancy, difficult employees,
TUPE and corporate re-organisations.
• Hina co-authored the ‘Penguin Guide to
Employment Rights’ with preface by Cherie
Booth, barrister and wife of Tony Blair.
Hina Belitz

3. COVID-19 cases
at work, Mental
Health, Stress
and Suicide

4. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
CORONAVIRUS

5. COVID-19 cases at work
• COVID-19: What we know so far…
• COVID-19: Case studies and discussions
1. Senior manager dismissed for refusing to allow his team to travel to
an international event.
2. Employee faces disciplinary action for walking out of the office over
fears another employee, who works in proximity, has coronavirus.
3. Employer refuses to allow an employee to wear a face mask.

6. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
COVID-19: What
we know so far…
• Guidance is continuously changing
• Government Guidance for employees, employers and businesses in
providing advice about coronavirus (COVID-19).
• ACAS Guidance on Coronavirus (COVID-19): advice for employers and
employees.

7. Statutory
Sick Pay
• SSP Regulations have been amended
• Regulation 2(1)(c) provides that a person is deemed incapable
of work where he is:
• "(i) isolating himself from other people in such a manner
as to prevent infection or contamination with coronavirus,
in accordance with the schedule; and
• (ii) by reason of that isolation is unable to work."
• The schedule states that a person is deemed to be incapable of
work because they are self-isolating to prevent infection from
COVID-19 where:
• They have symptoms of COVID-19, however mild, and are
staying at home for seven days, beginning with the day on
which the symptoms started (day 1).
• They live with someone who is self-isolating (as above)
and are staying at home for 14 days, beginning with day 1.
• They are already self-isolating in accordance with the
second bullet (above), develop the symptoms of COVID-
19, however mild, and are staying at home for seven days,
beginning with the day the symptoms started.

8. Statutory
Sick Pay
• Temporary changes to SSP to:
• SSP can be claimed from the first day of
incapacity, rather than the fourth day
• enable employers with fewer than 250 employees
to reclaim SSP paid in respect of the first 14 days

9. Annual leave
• Can workers carry forward annual leave if
they are prevented from taking it due to the
pandemic?
• In what circumstances could holiday be used
by workers to cover periods of absence?
• Holiday pay

10. Employers
duty of care
• What special considerations apply where the
employee is pregnant?
• What should an employer do where an
employee who is at work starts displaying
symptoms?

11. High risk
employees and
discrimination
issues
• Where an employee refuses to attend work
because they have a disability which they
believe puts them at high risk of serious
illness if they catch COVID-19, can an
employer dismiss them, or if not, what pay
are they entitled to?

12. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz,
hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
Coronavirus Job
Retention
Scheme
(furlough)
CARLUCCIO’S LIMITED AND THE
INSOLVENCY ACT 1986

13. Coronavirus
Job
Retention
Scheme
(furlough)
• Who is covered?
• Does the individual have to be at risk of
redundancy to be covered by the scheme?

14. How is furlough
leave
implemented?
• How does an employer decide who to put
onto furlough: do they need to go through
an equivalent redundancy scoring exercise?
• Can an employer rotate furlough between its
employees?
• Are employers obliged to top up the
remaining 20%?

15. During
furlough
leave
• Can an employee work for another
employer?
• Can employees on furlough leave do
volunteer work?
• Can employees on furlough leave undertake
training?

16. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546

17. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
Case Study 1
Senior manager dismissed
for refusing to allow his
team to travel to an
international event.

18. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
Case Study 2
Employee faces disciplinary action for walking out of
the office over fears another employee, who works
in proximity, has coronavirus.

19. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
Case Study 3
Employer refuses to allow
an employee to wear a
face mask.

20. Mental
Health,
Stress and
Suicide

21. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
Mental Health, Caroline
Flack, depression and suicide
cases in the workplace

22. Partners Employment Lawyers, Hina Belitz, hina@partnerslaw.co.uk - 02073746546
• An employee with mental health issues has told their manager that they
are suicidal. The employee blames their mental health issues on the
employer, saying that it failed to support them by not redeploying them
to another role in the company when their relationship broke down
with their manager. The Employer invited the employee to a meeting,
which they refused. When the employer could no longer get in touch
with the employee due to the employee's vulnerable mental state it
called their next of kin, which the employee subsequently objected to
on email.

23. Thank You
For further information please:
Call us: 020 7374 6546 / 07809694400
Email us: hina@partnerslaw.co.uk
Website – www.partnerslaw.co.uk
All legal work is carried out through Excello Law Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.