DH being made to go to work with vulnerable wife

[Dingdongthewitchisbread]

I’m posting on behalf of a friend who has severe asthma that requires monthly injections to manage. She’s had her letter from the NHS saying she must stay in doors.

Her DH is a cash machine engineer and he is being made to carry on going to work.

They are naturally concerned that he is highly likely to catch Coronavirus given he’ll be around a lot of people, in supermarkets etc.

Can anyone give any advice as to what their options are?

She needs to self-isolate from him. The government does have advice on this - completely different rooms and, if possible, separate bathrooms

FroM Gov.UK

Government guidelines are that if you are a key worker, you need to carry on working unless in self isolation because of symptoms.

Regardless of the vulnerablity of those you live with. It they are vulnerable they are advised to self isolate - not you.

I'm guessing a cash machine engineer is classed as a key workers under essential banking services?

I have a similar situation, work NHS frontline and my son is in the vulnerable due to severe asthma, I have no idea how I am expected to protect him during this time. The guidance is that I have a risk assessment done but who knows how long that will take and how many people who potentially are infected I will be in contact with in that time

So the governments advice is that one of them needs to live in the bedroom basically. That’s not conducive to good mental health is it?

They also have young children so the three steps away thing isn’t going to work either is it.

I understand they need key works and I understand everyone needs to make sacrifices, I really do, but it’s just not practical advice in reality is it.

Sadly I think their options are he either continues working and she self isolate from him as much as she is able to or he hands his notice in unfortunately. His employer is only required to make reasonable adjustments for him and not his spouse presently.

He could possibly ask his employer to furlough him as potentially his work load may slightly reduce due to higher volumes of people using debit cards due to not wanting to handle cash at the moment. However as it is a vounluntarty request and as a key worker I doubt his employer could claim for 80% of his salary so he may have zero income.

Hopefully he has been given clear safety instructions on how to continue working with minimal transmission risk from his employer and has also been given gloves etc when working as ATMs are obviously high public contact items.

If he carries on work then maybe they could introduce a return home routine where he places all outer clothes in a bin bag and sanitises his hands on return to the house. Then he could take the bin bag straight to the washing machine and empty the contents into the machine without touching the clothes by turning the bag inside out, then straight into the shower.

Nothing is that practical at this time.

I'm in the same boat. I'm vulnerable and my husband is a key worker and dealing with the public without protection. We have a 3 year old too. X

I'm a key worker and have just gone into self isolation to protect my husband who is in the high risk category. I think it depends on what your employer is prepared to accept. I know I'm not the only one in my workplace (retail) either. We get paid for 2 weeks, then after that I'll have to make a decision as to whether I go back to work or stay off longer with no pay.

@edwardcullensotherwoman what do you think you’ll decide to do?

@Idolovechocolategimmygimmy how are you managing the situation?