London, Jan 18 (AFP/APP):A growing number of UK-based retailers are toughening their stance against unvaccinated staff who come into contact with infected people, as they seek to cut costs from the long-running pandemic.
British supermarket chain Morrisons and online counterpart Ocado, as well as clothing retailer Next and Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA, have all reduced sick pay for unvaccinated UK staff required to isolate after Covid contact.
IKEA offers full company sick pay to both vaccinated staff and unvaccinated staff who have special circumstances, it said in a statement on its policy for virus absences.
Unvaccinated staff without mitigating circumstances — such as pregnancy or medical reasons — will however be paid statutory sick pay which is the legal minimum.
Next, Ocado and Morrisons also confirmed in separate statements sent to AFP that they operate a broadly similar policy.
However, unvaccinated staff with no mitigating reason will only receive standard company sick pay if they test positive for Covid-19.
Under current rules, fully vaccinated individuals in Britain are not legally required to isolate after coming into contact with a person who tests positive — but unvaccinated individuals must self-isolate for 10 days.
All people with Covid-19 must self-isolate for five days, after which they can finish if they test negative on days five and six and do not have a temperature.
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