To expect people ill with Covid stay home?

Mine is 3x in a 12 month period, after that you are in breach of contract

I think you’ll find the law disagrees:
https://www.acas.org.uk/dismissals/types-of-dismissal

People would only be dismissed for long term illness on capability grounds which is not what we’re talking about here: we’re talking about taking 1 to 5 days off when unwell to avoid spreading your infection to others

One afternoon out of 6 weeks won’t matter. It’s not for you to tell someone how to spend their time. I can’t stand comments like this.

Anyway, I’m incredibly bored of repeating myself to the ignorant and privileged. To clarify if in any doubt, if I’m ill and able to work I will be going to work, no I don’t care if that makes others ill and yes my family and funding my home is more important to me. Whatever that makes me so be it, peace out ✌️

Yes they could ultimately lead to dismissal but only if the employee has been taking the piss. Not if they’ve been genuinely unwell and definitely not in the cases we’re discussing (which isn’t long term sick)

I’m grand thanks. I’m just pottering in the (wet and windy!) garden with my son who is happily helping me plant bulbs by dropping them into the little holes I’ve created. Me spending a few minutes on my phone here and there whilst he does his own thing won’t hurt him (and will probably help with his independence).

As the above poster stated their compnies policy is over 3 times in 12 months
Its not infeasible that someone could have several virus,s in a 12 month period but not want to be in breech of contract so go into work even if they are not 100%

I think you’ll find my professional background and experience tell me otherwise!

ACAS also recognises that employees can be dismissed due to sickness absence, including situations involving repeated short-term absences, depending on the circumstances and the employer’s procedures.

People can get ill more than once a year, after all! I’ve had COVID twice in one year myself.

Ultimately, it depends on the employer’s sickness absence policy, the circumstances of the absences, and whether a fair process has been followed.

I’m happy to be corrected when I’m wrong, but that works both ways. If you’re going to cite ACAS to support your argument, you also need to acknowledge what its guidance says about repeated sickness absence and the possibility of dismissal.

Working when sick costs uk businesses over £100bn a year in productivity. This is only the immediate damage. It ignores factors such as viral transmission and the knock on impacts of that on healthcare, families, education, jobs, economy and so on. Financial coercion, lack of accountability for the impacts of poor policies, company culture all play a part.

I would avoid going out with Covid, I wouldn't go to the pub etc, but I wouldn't completely stop.

Most people won’t know they’ve got Covid.

most people will feel well enough to crack on.

someone who feels well enough to do an exercise class certainly does.

I would have left and I would have made it blindingly obvious why. You shouldn’t have to be the one to leave in these circumstances, but I would rather go, and look like an uptight cow, than risk catching Covid and passing it on to my vulnerable child. Some people are incredibly selfish. Any of us could, of course, catch it anywhere, but if you know you’re contagious, why wouldn’t you make an effort to keep your germs to yourself? That person didn’t NEED to attend yoga.

Same for my company

People who can't afford time off work are among those who would benefit most from a different culture around illness. Even if they themselves can't stay away from work every time they're ill, if the general social rule was to avoid mixing if you can then there will be less illness around and they will be less likely to catch something and be too ill to work for a week.

People with bad employers with bad sickness policies siding with people who think we should just ignore all illness, minimise covid and not care about infecting other people is an odd pairing.

Um, well an employee where I work was dismissed for poor attendance due to sickness and they were advised they could by the HR company they employ for such things, I believe the employee spoke to ACAS too, but they had a bout of flu that brought them low and then caught everything going after that, and triggered the sickness policy, we work with very vulnerable people, so you'd think that our employer would be shit hot on people not going to work with any sort of illness and supportive when taking time off to protect the people we look after. No, they punish you for doing so.

I'm still in touch with her, she doesn't get past the application or interview stage where "Why did you leave your last job" comes up.

While policies like that exist, are allowed to exist and are supported by legal framework, it's not going to change. Of course she was assumed to be 'taking the piss' which seems to be the standard response in low paid roles, despite the fact most only offer SSP (which is about a 1/4 of my wage) for sickness, there's very little incentive to 'take the piss' when that's the consequences.

And unfortunately many (especially low waged places) are like this, moving between them doesn't really achieve much in the way of better treatment.

Just a question but you mentioned childcare, is that a nursery? Do they pay enough for their staff to make provision for any absences they may have due to illness and also have a policy that doesn't punish them for taking time off sick to protect the children?

I acknowledge it. It would only apply in the circumstance of someone taking the piss.

Besides, no employer wants to have to get rid of folk unnecessarily. It’s too costly to have to rehire and retrain. I speak from experience in that respect.

Think you’ve posted in the wrong thread? No-one talking about lockdowns

I’ve no idea. I’m a customer not an employee, so don’t know the details of their employment contracts.

I’m immunosuppressed and had to shield during Covid times. I absolutely do not expect anyone to miss work to protect me - my health is my problem to manage and people need to work and look after their families. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise

I could infect my team with something I didn't know I had. Unfortunately we can't stop our lives to eliminate all risk to others. All we can do is mitigate by behaving in accordance with guidance for particular illnesses. For example, the guidance for norovirus is 48 hours after symptoms stop, the guidance for respiratory illnesses is until temperature subsides and you feel better. This and practising good hygiene at all times is reasonable. We don't need to be making up our own extra restrictions and scolding people for not following them.

This is what the NHS guidance says currently:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/covid-19-symptoms-and-what-to-do/

I don't think anyone in my office would be impressed if someone came in with Covid, flu or a bad cold and gave it to other people there. But we can choose to work from home when we like.

I appreciate some people can't, but if we have a choice about going somewhere I can't see the reasoning in potentially passing an illness on to work colleagues or other people in a group activity.

For the vast majority of people it’s little more than a cold, if the whole population stayed in every winter because they had a cold the country would grind to a halt.

Ah, I see, you don't actually give a shit enough to make sure that you're using services that treat their employees well and ensure that they can do all the things that you demand people should do, and are selfish not to do, and protect your children from illnesses by not encouraging them to come in ill for fear of financial loss or disciplinary action?

Yes there's a lot of that about, use and rely on services that have these low paid roles, but like to shout about how people should better themselves out of these types of roles when they say that the pay and conditions are poor.

100% agree.

Really disappointed by the general response to this thread