Compulsory covid test

[SophieJames]

I work in homecare on 0 hour contract. At the moment I'm not working until children are back to school. My work have just informed me I have to take a weekly covid test as it's the law regardless of any symptoms. Is this inforcable? I'm not working but they say it's law (mentioned numerous times over the phone) I have to self test. No instructions on how to do it. I feel pressured into doing a test which is not pleasant to do. Can my work do this?

@ttigress some areas of the country are doing symptom free regular testing for research purposes

They are at best 50% effective, it's just false confidence and box ticking

I would expect nothing less of a care home than to expect staff that are working to have regular tests. The test really isn’t at all invasive or painful. Unless you have some additional issue that means it causes you distress then I honestly can’t understand why you would t just take it.

I'm a care home manager and all my staff have been testing themselves weekly for months. From new year we have to go to 4 times a week testing. Take the test or don't work in care right now unfortunately.

@milkysmum

I'm a care home manager and all my staff have been testing themselves weekly for months. From new year we have to go to 4 times a week testing. Take the test or don't work in care right now unfortunately.

Where and when is this this testing taking place. Do you expect workers to keep testing outside their normal working hours?

It is definitely best practice, and is not illegal (would count as a reasonable instruction)

They should however provide you with information on the testing schedule

well obviously they should be paid for the 20 seconds it takes to do

@MissMarpletheMurderer

They are at best 50% effective, it's just false confidence and box ticking

Catching 50% of the positives is better than missing 100% of the positives.

Mandatory as one of your conditions of work. You should do it.

Why don't you want to protect the people you work with?

My sil works in a care home and has been having weekly tests for a couple of months. Theyre carried out under supervision of her manager, on her shift, and take about ten seconds. I think it's standard in the care sector now, to protect residents from staff bringing it in. I can't understand why you would object really.

Struggling to understand this... Numerous employers are doing this outside of the care sector and have been ALL year. It may not pick up 100% of cases but something is better than nothing.

To answer your question, no it's not ''enforceable'' in that you can't be physically forced. However, your employer owes a duty of care to the vulnerable people you seek to work with and this will be prioritized. Your employer can refuse to allow you to work if you aren't tested and they would be wise to do so.

Whether it’s law or not, surely common sense tells you it’s a good idea?

It sounds reasonable given your kind of job. I know some people who work for the NHS have to test 4 times a week when there’s a covid case at their work because they can’t all be asked to self isolate otherwise there won’t be any staffs left. Otherwise they test weekly. They give them a lot of those home rapid response test.
I do a test monthly as part of the ONS survey and it’s really not that bad at all

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=covid+test+youtube&docid=608023204803775846&mid=6630C4C53FFA13F106306630C4C53FFA13F10630&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Just do it. If you don't, you're on a zero hour contract; they'll simply not provide you with any work, I'm sure.

What's the big deal?

I'm tested weekly as I work in a care home. You get use to it and it's not that bad.

Pulling out the swap does hurt a little (got eatery eye) but all residual discomfort seems to be give after less than 10 minutes in my case. Really not that bad at all.

I could imagine (but I might be wrong) that it would be slightly worse for those with very dry mucous membranes. Buying a humidifier might be worth it. Or using a nasal spray before going to bed / the day before the test. But I could be wrong about that.

*watery eyes.

Not eatery... 😅

It’s quite easy @SophieJames. Ask to be shown how and if not send me a message and I will help you.
It isn’t nice (uncomfortable not painful) but it’s really quick to do.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why the nose has to be swabbed? Why won't the throat do?

If this is so contagious that just breathing can cause others to catch it, surely you don't have to do a deep nasal scrape to find some viral particles? Given a hyper sensitive PCR amplifies any tiny shred of viral dna a trillion fold on a government endorsed cycle threshold of 45....I mean, your mouth should be positively HEAVING with it....why isn't that enough?

I am a bit puzzled by this.

Call ACAS for confirmation.

I didn't find it anywhere near as bad as I imagined. Like posters have said a bit ticklish in the nose.

You are probably going to have to make a decision about the covid vaccine too. As a carer at some stage soon hopefully you should be offered it.

My 90 year old grandmother caught Covid in her care home in November.
She caught it from members of staff - as did the other 20 residents.

Two of the residents died.

Several including her are still poorly or have long-term confusion or worsening of their dementia symptoms.

Do you really want to be the member of staff who passes this on? Especially if you have children which puts you at higher risk of contracting it from them?

If you won't do a test you need to be in another job. The staff at my DGMs home who tested positive first are devastated that it was one of them who infected their residents.