Latest Covid Rules For Wales

This blog post may seem odd for a Chester, England website, but as we all know, we border North Wales so cross border movements occur regularly. Therefore the latest Covid Rules for Wales do, or may, affect Chester people and businesses. But what does the latest Covid Rules for Wales say? The short announcement to be aware of is this probably, “The new law states: “No person may leave the place where they are living, or remain away from that place, for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services.”

Now, that’s pretty clear isn’t it. Er, isn’t it? No, I don’t think so either when you consider, say, businesses on the Welsh side of Saltney for example. Or, North Wales residents working in England. Allow me to add a possible real illustration to mull over.

Latest Covid Rules For Wales

I did write about Saltney after one of the earlier lockdown announcements HERE. And it does get quite a bit confusing when you try and look into it a bit more closely. Case in point. Let’s have a look at a hypothetical, but it may be real, situation.

A Welsh side Saltney based business has two employees. One lives in North Wales and is best suited to do a particular job and the other lives in Chester. The job cannot easily (if at all) be flexible enough for it to be carried out from home.

But, before I go any further, who decides whether or not a job can be carried out from home if push comes to shove and if an employer is at risk of facing a £1,000 fine? In case you didn’t know, Mark Drakeford, the First Minister for Wales, has introduced the following: “a Fixed Penalty Notice of £60 applies to workers, but employers could also be fined £1,000 for each staff member travelling to work unnecessarily.”

A key word in that statement is “unnecessarily” isn’t it. In the case of our two employees above, let’s assume the job required to be carried out is an office, computer related task. Expanding on the broader definition of ‘computer related’ this involves software, access to the internet, a printer and of course, a computer itself. The employee in North Wales doesn’t have access to their own computer etc at home.

A Working Example

Given that the task is an urgent component of the business’ overall day to day operations and time constrained, is it a realistic expectation that the business provide all the hardware equipment etc in order for the North Wales employee to even be in a position to commence the task. Add to that the setting up of the software (maybe it’s confidential, so that’s another consideration?) and the communications required, is it actually feasible to do all this? Would the Welsh Assembly (would it be the Welsh Assembly to address this?) have the opinion that the onus is on the business to take all necessary steps to make this happen? After all there’s a juicy £1,000 fine to consider.

But Mr Drakeford has added this guidance, “We expect employers to take all reasonable steps to facilitate home working and provide employees with the support they need.” Who gets to define ‘reasonable steps’ though?

You can imagine the exchange can’t you. Welsh Assembly impose the £1,000 fine and the business appeals. Only to then to be asked, “but what steps did you take to try and make it happen?” Will the WA be in a position to say, the business could have made it happen? So, here you go, “let’s have our £1,000 please.” Is it a one off £1,000 fine? Or is it a £1,000 for each day the employee goes into work? I imagine the latter.

From an employer’s point of view though, the many steps required, including the time constraints to get the job done, it may be too many steps too far.

Chester Based Employee

Mind you, there is still the Chester based employee. They can also do the required job, but are not best suited to do so. The North Wales employee is. No worry though in the travelling to work option. Travelling from Chester to Welsh Saltney isn’t a problem. Yet. Especially if the business is in, say, River Lane, Saltney. In which case you are only just over the border. So, in that respect, minimal contact with anyone over the border in Wales anyway.

Problem solved. Chester based employee is requested to come into the office and fulfill the task. And, as it involves working some extra hours, think of the extra overtime wonga. A bit extra expense for the business as the Chester based employee needed some extra training and took longer to fulfill the task. However, as far as the employer is concerned, the tasks are completed – and on time. And no fine. A result all round.

Not quite. The North Wales employee has effectively been furloughed, but with no wonga to soften the blow. And they need the wonga so much to help pay for Christmas etc. No different to so many other employees actually.

Decisions, decisions for borderline businesses and employees. No doubt, Mr Drakeford has thought it all through though and has all the answers required. As he has stated “They [the rules] are designed to protect workers, not to penalise them.” And of course, they are measures to help curb the spread of the Omicron Covid 19 variant and help prevent something that might happen. The ‘might’ being, hospitalisations and subsequent Covid related deaths might increase to the extent the NHS is at breaking point.

Latest Covid Rules For Wales – What About The Self Employed?

The above working example highlights an employer/employee relationship. But what about the self-employed? Again, let’s look at an example. For instance, a self-employed, mobile hairdresser or nail technician. New Year’s Eve parties (safe and socially distanced parties I might add) coming up and ladies (and men for that matter) want to look their best.

So, lady or gentleman, in need of a spruce up before the New Year, do their safety conscious bit and don’t leave home to visit their normal hairdresser. Instead they look for the services of a local, mobile hairdresser or nails guru. Sorted. Not exactly. The local mobile hairdresser, or nails guru, they’ve used before also live in North Wales, so they can’t really go out to work.

Never mind, Chester is just over the border. They can therefore call a mobile “sprucer-upperer” from Chester. Phew, thank goodness the New Year “sprucer-uppering” is now taken care of. Hang on a minute though. The North Wales based “sprucer-upperer” is rapidly losing business to those invaders from over the border in England. And, as a consequence of this hopefully ‘one-off’ situation of defecting to an English, scissor marauding “sprucer-upperer” it may actually turn into a new long-term arrangement. Disaster for the North Wales service provider.

Although not ideal, and especially as Christmas and other bills need to be paid, the Saltney, North Wales based service provider has the short term comfort of a Government assisted, SEISS grant to fall back on. Oh wait, no they haven’t. Even more disastrous.

It’s A Tough Job Alright

Yes indeed, Mark Drakeford, has a very difficult job on his hands to help make sure something that might happen, actually doesn’t happen. As we all know, protecting the NHS is paramount. We, mere mortals, all get and understand that. And by abiding by all the restrictions imposed, we all do our bit (well, most of us). Thank goodness though, that in addition, those that control us are ahead of the game and we are so fortunate that we still have the Nightingale Centres and the benefits of all that extra capital investment in the NHS to help cope with any possible increase in capacity. Oh wait……and on that note, I’ll leave this point there.

On a slightly different, but still related note, what about Chester FC matches?

Latest Covid Rules For Wales – Chester FC Matches

Another of Mark Drakeford’s latest Covid rules for Wales means that people in Wales cannot attend any sporting events. Does that mean a sporting event in Wales only? Or does that mean people in Wales cannot leave their homes to attend a sports event anywhere? I assume it means a sporting event in Wales only.

Anyone living in Wales cannot, for instance, go and watch a Wrexham match. But what if Wrexham were playing, say, Stockport County? Can Stockport fans attend? Realistically, I don’t know as yet, but I would guess that Wrexham’s games in the near future have been postponed.

But, using Saltney again as an example. Or, maybe slightly further afield, Broughton. Anyone living in Saltney or Broughton for instance, cannot go to watch Airbus, from Broughton, play in the League Of Wales. But they could travel to, say, Anfield, or Goodison, or the two Manchester clubs. Or, they could watch Chester. But could they?

Talk About A Game Of Two Halves!!!

Is watching Chester a viable option on more than one point? Isn’t Chester’s ground split between England and North Wales. Part of the stadium or pitch straddles the border doesn’t it? I’m not 100% sure of the exact split and where the split occurs. But does this present a latest Covid rules for Wales issue?

On a light hearted note (or is it something a bit more serious…….sound of intense organ music – der…der…der!!!) would we expect to see Mark Drakeford chasing after the players and the staff, slapping £60 fine stickers on them every time they crossed the border on the pitch or anywhere else in the stadium? Or would it only apply to those players and staff that lived in Wales?

And how many £1,000 fines for the club as the employer? Picture the scene. Chester have a corner in a Wales part of the pitch. Expert corner kick taker, who happens to live in North Wales, runs over to take it. Cue the manager shouting instructions, “no, no, leave it for someone else to take it. We can’t afford the fine.”

Also, what about the fans? “Sorry, you can’t sit or stand there as it’s in Wales. And by the way, where do you live?”

For the purpose of clarity, the above scenario is a tongue in cheek, “I’m confused” type of observation. Or is it? No really, I’m sure the powers that be are on the ball regarding all the cross border fine details.

But as you can see, as Chester borders North Wales, there is some ambiguity knocking about. If anyone knows the definitive rules, then please let us know.

For the latest Covid rules for Wales, have a look at this HERE and Mr Drakeford’s announcement HERE. These links may make things clear enough.

Merry Christmas One And All

As this will be my last blog post before Christmas, may I take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have a good ‘un everyone and stay safe.

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