The current turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic is creating unforeseen challenges for many businesses. However, despite the lack of short-term certainty, this could actually be the right moment for companies to re-examine their existing employee share based incentive arrangements and even an opportunity to make new cost-efficient awards.
These are challenging times for the construction sector. Some sites remain open, others have been temporarily closed. This article seeks to provide both a legal and practical guide to ways to minimise risk under the JCT DB Sub form of sub-contract in relation to the impact of the coronavirus.
The Government has now published the long-awaited Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill which contains details of the proposed arbitration scheme intended to deal with unpaid rent arrears accrued during the pandemic.
Now that the World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) a global health emergency, we consider the impact on businesses that may be affected and what companies should be looking at in order to protect their operations.
On 27 April 2020 the Chancellor announced yet another scheme to assist smaller businesses who are having difficulty accessing measures currently in place.
Justin Byrne, a consultant at Wright Hassall discusses the various issues that have come under the microscope in relation to contracts, specifically in light of the pandemic.
A leading disputes lawyer believes a “growing insurance war” could last longer than the Covid-19 crisis which has sparked it. Several small businesses across the UK have voiced their anger around being denied insurance pay-outs despite believing they were specifically covered against the global pandemic.
There will undoubtedly be many directors who, increasingly concerned about the solvency of their businesses and their potential exposure to personal liability for trading whilst insolvent, may have been considering whether to shut down during this pandemic. The UK Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, recently announced proposed new insolvency measures to suspend the laws on wrongful trading to offer some protection to business directors.
All businesses are now operating in uncharted waters. The government is reviewing its support for businesses on an almost daily basis and, last weekend, the Business Secretary announced a proposed relaxation of the law around ‘wrongful trading’ for 3 months (see our guide for more detail) thereby giving directors of otherwise viable businesses space to see whether the package of government incentives will enable them to survive the pandemic. Alok Sharma also announced he was considering other measures, largely based on the government response to the proposed changes to the insolvency regime in 2018.
On 5th March 2020, the Government unveiled its long-expected revised Immigration Bill to re-balance the immigration system and end Free Movement for EEA nationals from 2021. It simultaneously faced another priority: escalating the response to COVID-19.