To think that public facing workers should not be at work when obviously infectious

If I don't work then I don't get paid.
Can use annual leave but only have 18 days of that.
If I can physically work then I'm going to work

Absolutely. Reminds me that I once worked for a company who paid an "attendance bonus" every month, which took my salary from close to NMW to something slightly more livable (although still not brilliant). I have never caught so many illnesses at work, because people couldn't afford to lose out on an essential portion of their salary... people came in with stomach bugs, swine flu (remember that?!), etc... I reckon the policy probably led people to take more sick days than they would otherwise have needed to, because it encouraged bugs to be spread around!

Sick pay apart from SSP isn't a benefit enjoyed by all. Ironically it's the lowest paid care, retail. Hospitality staff that can't work from home that are least likely to get sick pay.

There's constant sniffley colds around. Sometimes you just need to accept the risk of your going to go out

Yanbu but employees usually can't take all the time off they need. I often get colds and can only be off sick for the very worst days, more than 3 episodes a year and HR gets involved and monitors our absence. I work with immunocompromised cancer patients but have no real choice here

Unless you are her doctor how do you the person is infectious? 'Obviously'?

Exactly this. OP, if you’re worried about picking up bugs when out, N95 face masks are very effective at protecting the wearer.

Maybe the charity shop wouldn’t have been able to open if she wasn’t there. She might have been volunteering. She might have had allergies. Even if she did have a cold, maybe it got worse as the day went on and she wasn’t as bad when she left in the morning, or maybe she just doesn’t think life should go on hold for a bit of a snotty nose. No need to be so judgmental.

I partially agree although also understand why systems don’t allow for it. Tbh I think the approach is to complain to big employers to make their practises more wellbeing friendly.

In a charity shop she would perhaps be a volunteer so not the same but if there was a chance I wouldn’t be paid for missing work, I would cross a stormy sea to get there unless too unwell to get out of bed. Bills need to be paid and kids need feeding.

I used to be a teacher. Considering that we mixed with lots of germs all day every day, the sickness procedure was very demoralising. I was given a very strict talking to and put on monitoring because I had three separate days off in a year (three separate illnesses and one was one day away from being outside the yearly period). I felt really bitter really as every time I had been quite ill for several days and should really have taken more time off. Now my kids are older and I don't mix with kids day in day out I've not been ill or off work for a long time. So sometimes it's not a decision of the worker themselves but they may feel forced to work when sick.

I can't get worked up about this. When you are out and about and no doubt surrounded by other customers who have coughs and colds and have touched and picked things up and even tried things on in a shop, I don't see how it makes much difference if the shop assistant also has a cold. But then I spend my work days in rooms of 30 kids, at least a quarter of whom have colds at any one time at this time of year. The occasional cold is inevitable.

Employers are the ones to complain to, I agree. Perhaps also if we all had warm homes and energy costs were the levels they are in much of Europe, people would either be less prone to infections, or be less likely to spread them.

I would say 85% of our teaching staff were like that this week!

What are people who can’t work from home supposed to do? They are more exposed to illness in the first place, and then they have people telling them to be off sick, and face loss of income and/or disciplinary action. It’s really stressful as it’s entirely possible to pick up one infection after another and then have the constant feeling of guilt that you should be at home but also guilt they you should be in work.

It's not just the financial implications and the risk of disciplinary action that has a bearing on this, customers will be very vocal in their complaints about waits when somewhere is short staffed due to sickness.
When they're facing the public sharing their germs daily they're going to pick stuff up, and the choice for the customer is getting served by someone unwell, waiting to get served longer because that person is off, or not getting served at all if there's a lot with the same bug and the place closes.

None of which seems to be acceptable, so what happens then?

Some people not salaried don't have a choice if they need the money. Salaried staff I agree.

Complain to the employers OP. They are the ones who make taking sick days difficult. There’s nothing worse than being frontline staff when you’re feeling horrible.

Charity shops often have a paid worker on each day, and volunteers to support. If the paid worker isn't in, they can't open - presumably for insurance reasons.

If they take a day off they won’t get sick pay, retail is low paid as it is so chances are they don’t have a buffer and every days wage helps pay the bills. I certainly don’t a day off for a cold unless it’s absolutely necessary, we just can’t afford to do that!

I expect she was the only paid member of staff at the shop supported by volunteers. And if she wasn't working the shop would be closed. Which is income lost for the charity at a busy time of year.

When I worked on the till at sainsburys I was like a sitting duck getting everyone's germs all over me..I had a constant cold from September to March. People said I shouldn't be at work but if I had stayed off I would have had to quit, sainsburys had a very patronising return to work procedure where you were told to come in with a cold to keep your attendance up

I think this is on employers, who say you're responsible for deciding if you're well enough to come in, but then turn around and don't pay sick pay for the first 3 days and hand out disciplinaries like candy.

For a charity shop though, it might be an unpaid volunteer - in which case there's not an excuse really (unless it is allergies).

I still go to work with a cold because I get no sick pay, so my option is to take the day off unpaid, which I cannot afford, or take annual leave.

Part of the issue is that customers come in coughing and sneezing over me all the time. If your in a shop making a non-vital purchase and not happy about a member of staff being ill just leave the shop

Sometimes "visibly infectious" is actually allergies, or the cold air making your nose run, or a cough is the after effects of an illness and they are no longer ill or because of a long term condition...

Starting to judge who's ill because of little things like that is what made it so hard for some people to go out during Covid, fear of being judged because they looked ill when they weren't. Let's not go back there!

This lady should have been prepared with tissues and hand gel though, rather than using her hands

Well, in an ideal world, they'd stay home. But in an ideal world, they'd also receive full pay when off sick, so they wouldn't have to worry about paying the mortgage or the bills or putting food on the table if they stayed at home.