HSE Contact Tracing App – What do Employers Need to Know?

Contact Tracing App advice by Alan Hickey, Associate Director of Advisory of Peninsula.

A million people in Ireland have now downloaded the new HSE COVID-19 Contact Tracing App. The app will identify when one person comes into ‘close contact’ with another based on Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between their devices. A handshake occurs when one person spends more than fifteen minutes within two metres of another person.

If anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 voluntarily confirms their diagnosis on the app, the app will then notify all close contacts that they have been exposed to the infected person. Under HSE advice, all close contacts are required to stay home for fourteen days, even if they have no symptoms.

The Government is calling on employers to encourage their staff to follow the rules and to support them in staying away from work if asked to isolate. Given that the app will help facilitate social distancing, encouraging staff to use it is something that employers should consider to help safeguard their workplace.

If you plan to ask staff to use the app, the first thing to note is that you may need to review IT policies. Many employers likely have policies in place that don’t allow the download of external applications onto company mobile phones.

The other possible unintended consequence of the app’s launch is that the more close contacts that are identified, the more employees will need to take two weeks off work with limited notice. It’s vital, therefore that employers are aware of what to do in this situation.

First of all, employers are under no legal obligation to pay employees who are absent through illness, and this includes staff who are advised to self-isolate. Some employers do provide a contractual right to paid sick leave which is generally capped for a maximum period and reduced by the amount of any Illness Benefit the employee is entitled to claim from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Staff who are directed to self-isolate by the HSE are also entitled to apply for the COVID-19 Illness Benefit. If employers don’t provide a contractual right to paid sick leave, employees who are notified that they are close contacts and required to self-isolate may be entitled to rely on the statutory COVID-19 Illness Benefit which is now paid at €350 per week. The COVID-19 Illness Benefit is paid for a maximum of two weeks where a person is self-isolating.

To receive the COVID-19 Illness Benefit, employees who are close contacts must:

· be suspected of having COVID-19 and directed by a doctor or the HSE to self-isolate

· have confirmation of the direction from the HSE either in text or letter format

· have been in paid employment for four weeks before making the claim.

The Government accepts that not everyone contacted will display symptoms and, to this end, employers should consider if these individuals can be asked to work from home on full pay during their period of self-isolation. If this is not possible, or they do become unwell, they will need to be paid under the employer’s sick pay policy or directed to apply for the COVID-19 Illness Benefit for the duration of their two-week self-isolation.