Published on: 05 August 2021
BusinessCare has released its monthly update, this month’s guidance includes:
Getting staff back to the workplace: what you need to know
The lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in England on 19 July included withdrawing the advice to work from home wherever possible. This article looks at how to prepare and manage the gradual return of staff to the office.
Right to work checks: updated guidance on European Economic Area (EEA) citizens employed before 1 July
The UK Government has set out a temporary process to follow if you discover that an EEA or Swiss citizen in your workforce didn’t apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) by 30 June 2021.
This process, in the updated guidance, applies only to those employed before 1 July 2021. It will remain in place until 31 December 2021. The guidance says that instead of dismissing or suspending staff which have not applied, employers should ask them to file an application within 28 days. Because these individuals will have missed the 30 June deadline, anyone applying after the deadline will have to persuade the Home Office that they had a ‘reasonable excuse’ and should be allowed to remain.
Data protection: temporary EU/UK agreement extended
Back in January, BusinessCare reported that the UK and the EU had agreed a six-month interim period, during which UK businesses could continue to process customers’ personal data after the end of the Transition Period, and without any extra requirements. This was to give the EU time to decide whether to make an adequacy decision in favour of the UK – and in doing so, formally recognise that the UK has adequate data protection standards.
On 28 June, the EU granted the UK an adequacy decision. This means that if your business receives any kind of personal data from the EU, you don’t need to change anything (provided you are already compliant with data protection law).
The adequacy decision is expected to last initially until 27 June 2025, but it can be extended for up to four years at a time. The European Commission will, however, continue to monitor developments in the UK and can amend, suspend, or end the adequacy decision earlier if they consider that the UK is not providing enough protection.
BusinessCare is a member benefit that British Marine members are automatically entitled to. For members who are yet to sign up for the plan, please follow these steps to do so:
- Log into your British Marine account by clicking on this link
- Obtain the membership code, which you will need to copy
- Head to the BusinessCare registration and paste the previously copied code to sign-up to the service
