Life during lockdown

To help slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Government has said that all non-essential shops and community spaces must close. This has had an unprecedented impact on London’s businesses and workers.  

Here’s how City Hall is helping London’s workforce (including the self-employed and freelance workers), by lobbying the Government to: 

• Provide clarity over compliance with “essential travel” and “critical workers” so those who have to can travel to work safely on London’s public transport.

• Deliver a comprehensive campaign to inform workers about their employment rights and the options available to them.   

• Address gaps in their support package for the self-employed including for the newly self-employed and directors of the smallest companies. 

• Ensure that employers can promptly access the Job Retention Scheme to prevent redundancies and protect the incomes of their furloughed employees, and that the government publishes data on how many employers have taken up the programme. 

• Ensure that the incomes of workers on zero-hours and agency contracts are also protected. 

• Remedy the unfair treatment of pregnant women and new parents under Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employment schemes.  

• Make non-repayable Universal Credit advance payments available from day one and suspend sanctions and conditionality for all claimants.   

• Suspend NRPF (no recourse to public funds) conditions.  

• Support London to put in place a plan for skills and investment to support recovery.  

How has your employment situation been affected by the coronavirus crisis?

What do you think of the measures above and what else do you think City Hall, the Government, and Londoners should do?

Looking ahead, what would you like to see in place to protect London’s workforce in the future?

Tell us in the discussion below.