{"id":203,"date":"2021-02-04T18:35:18","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T22:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/?p=203"},"modified":"2021-02-04T18:44:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T22:44:24","slug":"foreign-travel-for-holidays-from-work-during-covid19-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/2021\/02\/04\/foreign-travel-for-holidays-from-work-during-covid19-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Travel For Holidays From Work During COVID-19 Lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nic Hart<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Can an employee be disciplined for going on an \u2018illegal\u2019 foreign holiday during the current lockdown regime?<\/p>\n

The stating point is the current government guidance on travel<\/a>. That guidance begins by stating unambiguously as follows:<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019Under current UK COVID-19 restrictions, you must stay at home. You must not travel, including abroad, unless you have a legally permitted reason to do so. It is illegal to travel abroad for holidays and other leisure purposes.\u2019\u2019 It continues \u2018\u2019 It is illegal to travel abroad for holidays and other leisure purposes.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

So far so clear.<\/p>\n

It follows that without one of the legally permitted reasons, a person travelling abroad is acting illegally. The permitted reasons in the guidance include travelling for work, whereas holidays and leisure purposes are expressly<\/u> prohibited.<\/p>\n

So what if your employee puts in a holiday request form? Are you firstly entitled to ask if they are intending to travel at home or abroad?\u00a0 Generally it is difficult to regulate what an employee does out of work unless and until there is a sufficient connection between that behaviour (or its impact) and the employer\/employee relationship. However, in the current lockdown regime, in my view an employer is<\/u> entitled to ask what, if any, travel plans the employee has. That is because irrespective of legality, the travel may impact adversely on the health and safety of colleagues in that the risk of COVID infection is accepted as being much greater if a person does not \u2018stay at home\u2019.<\/p>\n

Let us assume that the employee replies that no travel is intended . In that scenario the employer must accept the information in good faith.\u00a0 If it later transpires that, the employee has been untruthful, then disciplinary process would be justifiable, but the reason for any disciplinary sanction in those circumstances is likely to primarily be the dishonesty of the employee rather than necessarily the travel itself.<\/p>\n

In the alternative, what if the employee retorts that they have had enough and they are flying to a foreign destination for a holiday? At that point, the employer has a number of options. The employer could:<\/p>\n