Work and workers breaking rules on Covid

[thenobsiworkwith]

I have come to work today, as i'm not longer allowed to WFH and one of my colleagues who comes in once every two weeks has come in from Wales where he is suppose to be in lockdown. The director made a joke with them about Wales not even wanting them there and that's the last it's been talked about. We are around 150 miles from Wales and not in a high tier lockdown area. My director has pushed everyone back into the office with no social distancing, so there regards for rules don't seem great. No real HR, small company and the originals are very matey within the company. AIBU that this isn't right?

In Wales, we are allowed to travel for essential reasons such as work.

The social distancing is an issue. Your colleague is allowed to travel out of Wales for work.

People living in Wales are allowed to travel to England for work.

@justchecking1 not if you can do your job from home which he can, he only comes in every two weeks as it is. We all worked from home from March until May

Who will be able to leave home?
Key workers and people whose jobs mean they cannot operate from home can go to work. Others can only leave for very limited reasons including food shopping, picking up medicine, exercising – though this should start and finish from home whenever possible – hospital visits or to provide care.
Are people allowed to cross the border?
People can cross the border to work if they cannot do their job from home. But people are not allowed to travel around or into Wales for a holiday, nor can they visit second homes.

If there are more than five people working there, then the company should have done a COVID-19 risk assessment. Ask to see yours. If they haven’t done one, it might be worth contacting the Health and Safety Executive: www.hse.gov.uk/contact/index.htm

I do think some businesses are not doing enough to prevent spread and track and trace is missing a lot of contacts.
This morning DH has been told someone he has had brief work related contact with yesterday has tested positive, his boss said it's up to him if he wants to isolate but it will be on no pay. He works for a very small company and his boss genuinely couldn't afford to pay isolating staff.
There needs to be clearer rules and better financial support so that companies can suport staff to isolate.
DH only had brief contact for 5 mins and hasn't been contacted by track and trace so I don't think he legally needs to isolate but it is worrying. We are tier 3 and numbers are increasing.

My brother has a similar situation in that several people in his workplace have tested positive over the last few weeks, with boses deciding most staff do not need to isolate as they believe there has been minimal contact. These are direct colleagues in the same building on the same shifts not just occasional contacts.
Track and trace should be involved in these situations with clear guidance.

@Foobydoo I agree there does need to be more financially help. I had to isolate waiting for test results of my child a few weeks back. I could have worked from home but my work refused, so I just had to take it unpaid whilst I waited five days for results.

We did have a covid assessment done and it's not being followed. We have twenty people in the office.

If you had a covid assessment done and it's not being followed you do need to contact HSE.