Employer Enforcing Quarantine?

[Dominicgoings]

UK based ( not Scotland) and healthcare setting.

Just had an email to say that anyone who goes abroad on ‘non essential travel’ will have quarantine for 14days on unpaid or annual leave and undergo Covid testing before returning to work.

Reasonable or not?

853690525d you have a problem with people who work in healthcare having a holiday? Would you be upset if they had two weeks in Cornwall

I think they should have a medal. I just don't think they should get on a plane at this point. I don't think anyone should get on a plane. I think we're looking at another slowly unfolding car crash and we appear to have learned absolutely nothing. Our elderly relatives paid dearly for our half terms in Italy. Well, now we're Italy so there's no point avoiding anywhere but we can avoid planes. We're keen for the government to learn something from this chaos. Here's something we can learn and advocate for. I wouldn't ask for something that I'm not prepared to do myself and I understand lockdown can't go on forever. But a flipping plane after what happened in March? Come on. No.

Even before the government lifted quarantine requirements for a list of countries, Healthcare Professionals registered with a UK-based regulator and employed at an NHS Trust or independent health/social care provider were exempt from quarantine in England/Wales/N.Ireland, but not Scotland.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules

It's u reasonable for your employer to force you to take an unpaid quarantine fortnight if you have visited a country where the rules have been changed.

They're basically saying no one can go on holiday abroad at all.

I wouldn’t want to work next to someone who's been abroad on a plane, I think the risk is higher, huge hotels, shared swimming facilities, too much alcohol etc plus the day trips, boat rides, water sports - all mixing with a variety of people from other countries.

Presumably you also object to sitting next to someone who has been in a busy supermarket, been to a pub, been to a restaurant, been to the cinema, used public transport, visited a local tourist site or beach, etc. As they are all things we can legally do but have a little greater risk.

My holiday doesn't involve a plane or an airport, it doesn't involve huge hotels and pools, I won't be doing water sports or boat rides and we won't be drinking excess of alcohol. I'm mainly going to areas where the transmission rate is much lower than where I live, where the active cases are zero or extremely low and there have been no deaths for a couple of weeks or more. Unlike the city I live in where it is presumably okay for me to go to work in the bus, go shopping, go out for a drink, etc.

@jcyclops I think, if I've interpreted that correctly, that people who are entering the country to take up a job in healthcare don't have to quarantine, not that those who already work here could take a holiday prior to lockdown easing. I could be wrong though!

I'm mainly going to areas where the transmission rate is much lower than where I live, where the active cases are zero or extremely low and there have been no deaths for a couple of weeks or more

You see this is all about you and your risk and not the risk YOU pose to other people.

How can you not see that?

Good, don’t be a selfish tw*t!!

@Dominicgoings

UK based ( not Scotland) and healthcare setting.

Just had an email to say that anyone who goes abroad on ‘non essential travel’ will have quarantine for 14days on unpaid or annual leave and undergo Covid testing before returning to work.

Reasonable or not?

Haven’t RTFT... but are you less likely to catch a virus when on “essential travel”? Seems a bit stupid if you ask me

It’s irrelevant as the employers actions are unlawful. There hasn’t been a change in employment legislation allowing an employer to dictate where an employee can and cannot go on holiday or withhold wages.

Why can’t people be swabbed on return?
I work in the NHS and have spent months being careful. I’ve no plans to go abroad just UK hopefully

But I know of other staff that are planning to, if they were made to have 2 weeks off after leave we wouldn’t have any staff on the wards. I don’t think anyone going abroad would object to being swabbed in return though.

As for being told what you can do in your spare time. Yes absolutely be careful and mindful what you do but we all should be doing that anyway! The employer can’t tell you where you can and can’t go out of work, lockdown restrictions are lifting.

Reasonable to me, unreasonable not to have insisted from March onwards. So you could have made a decision not to travel without committing money.

@MrsGoggings85 how is going on holiday to a destination that most likely has a lower infection rate than where you live and work, whilst following social distancing advice, being a selfish twat? I still don't understand how it's different to going on holiday in the UK, or some day trips into London using the underground.

Reasonable.

You see this is all about you and your risk and not the risk YOU pose to other people.

So if I was going in holiday to Cornwall, or some other English location, would that be okay?

Or if I go out for a meal in my own town, like I'm doing today - is that okay if I come and sit next to a work colleague on Monday?

Or if I take the bus to work first?

Or I shop in a big supermarket rather than getting home delivery?

I will be wearing a mask throughout - all to reduce risk to others.
I will maintain social distancing throughout - again, this helps to protect others not just myself.
I will use hand sanitisers and be washing my hands frequently - again it protects others not just myself.

Just like you don't want your colleague to have done anything you don't deem safe, though is perfectly legal - that's because you want to protect yourself. It's not about protecting the other person.

"Why can’t people be swabbed on return?"

Probably because of the incubation period.

For everyone saying it's reasonable and that they wouldn't want to be near anyone who has been on a plane, or been travelling ... sure, who would? BUT this is the government's doing. And the reality is, travel is not only allowed, it's being actively encouraged. Hence 'air bridges' and the like. Otherwise, the already skyrocketing unemployment rate will continue to rise and people will lose everything they've worked for all their lives.

If you don't like it, vote differently. Make noise. Tell the government they're getting it wrong. But you can't punish individuals for following the government's own dictates.

And, tbh, people are more likely to pick up the virus within the country these days with all the ridiculous behaviour going on since lockdown restrictions have eased and pubs reopened. I'm in a school. Dreading September when we have 30 back in a room day in and day out, and the children and their families are all off seeing and doing whatever they want out of school hours,then coming back into the classroom. But they're allowed, so not much choice there.

Ultimately the key is that as I mentioned Public Health England (and the government now that the air bridges have been introduced) doesn't actually consider going abroad (to most places anyway) to be a risk to the person going or their partner given the current situation here and abroad.
So what random Joe thinks is a risk is frankly irrelevant. An employer can enforce testing but not 14 days unpaid leave in this scenario.