Holiday abroad and work. Are you allowed?

[OnceUponACat]

Has your employer forbidden you to go abroad? To a non 14 day isolation country?
Can they even do that?

And who is going to be okay for the cancelled holidays - because I can guarantee the companies wouldn't offer, but equally insurance and refunds won't be forthcoming either, as the countries are not in the Dow not visit',or 'only essential travel' zones.

I really can't see how that would stand up to any scrutiny if taken further by an employee to be honest.

Dh's law firm has the same rules as my school in paper, but the reality is most staff could now work from home during self isolation and - if their job can be done effectively from home with no loss of hours/money - they would be paid to work from home during self isolation.

Argh - sorry for duplicate posts. Connection was playing up

Well exactly. I suppose the issue is with those employee who cannot work from home but they want them to self isolate. They want to minimise disruption to work and shortstaffing issues.

Like you said how can you impose restriction on people going abroad but not to Leicester. Why should an employee even have to tell you where they go (if not on a red area or quarantene one) for annual leave to be agreed or even cancelled?

Madeness.

Madness*

It'll just lead to people lying and saying they're staying in the U.K.
Or are these companies going to ask for proof of your booking?
Even then it'd probably be easy enough to mock up a fake U.K. booking, so long as you then don't post any pictures to social media, etc.

I think the point is that there may be no quarantine now but things can change quickly so you may find the place you have travelled to changes to a hot spot/quarantine country, or may even lock down whilst you are there. Then you won't be able to be on work when the holiday os finished. This is what my DH's workplace is warning of. You go at your own risk but if you get stuck or need to quarantine, that time will have to be taken as further leave or unpaid leave.

Why can’t you just get tested when you return to the UK? The testing centre near me is empty. I will get a test on my return from Spain, why self isolate if you haven’t got it?

@Apolloanddaphne I get the principle behind it BUT this could apply to everywhere like we have seen with Leicester. So what then? Who decides where you can go? Is London ok for those who live rurally? Is Blackpool beach ok? Is anywhere ok? If the gov had lifted the quarentene (rightly or wrongly) it is lifted which means those countries are to be treated like your own countries. What is the difference?

And yes. Getting tested could be a solution for them if this is what they want to implement.

@Aragog yes they ask for proof of booking.

I agree you could just as likely catch it here, also so many flights coming into the uk from all over the world, nobody is being tested, quarantine is not being checked, you could catch it from anywhere. Wait until autumn comes with all the other bugs, why isolate if you just have a cold, get a test and carry on with your life.

@gotothecooler

I don't see how your employer can dictate what you do during your time off. Is there something missing from this?

They're not dictating, but they're making it clear if you choose to do this and are required to isolate that's St your expense not the company's. How's that unfair?

They're not dictating, but they're making it clear if you choose to do this and are required to isolate that's St your expense not the company's. How's that unfair?

There is no isolation required in the scenario given though, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

@SoloMummy if I do what? Travel? On the basis of what? So can they say if you go to the pub or a busy beach you need to isolate?

People going for a piss up every weekend and getting drunk and hugging eachother when drunk and god knows what else are they willdo at as much risk as someone taking a plane to go and see family somwhere where the virus is totally under control.

And if I am discriminatory against drinkers and pub dwellers so are they to those who travel. What is the difference? What is the difference between Leicester, I repeat and say, Frankfurt.

Surely it should be one rule if you catch Covid from anywhere and you have to self isolate the cost is down to you? What if someone has had a big party celebration at home and caught it?

@Alex50

Surely it should be one rule if you catch Covid from anywhere and you have to self isolate the cost is down to you? What if someone has had a big party celebration at home and caught it?

That's not really what this thread was asking. OP was specifically asking about whether or not an employer has any right to ban employees from taking foreign holidays where there is no requirement to quarantine. The 'what about' isn't relevant.

Yes. That would be another issue. Valid one too.

What if you get it at work from your collegue who goes illegal raving at the weekend? Should work pay for you and not them? What if you get it at the supermaket. What if you do not know how you got it? Is it going abroad a sin that needs to be punished? Do we need to ask whether one goes to Magaluf or a tiny town in Brittany?

Legally, I don't believe employers can impose their own rules that are in contravention to the FCO advice. So yes, they can make you quarantine if you are travelling to a country that is not on the FCO list but they can't if it's a country that doesn't require quarantine. That wouldn't stand up legally.

Reasonable employers would allow home working if the holiday to an area requiring quarantine was booked pre-pandemic. That's what many schools are doing.

Solomummy

But that isn't the case.
They are dictating - and applying their own made up rules - about quarantine to places where we are allowed to visit under the new riles, with no quarantine.

The business are the one forcing people to self isolate, not the country.

@MinnieMousse

Reasonable employers would allow home working if the holiday to an area requiring quarantine was booked pre-pandemic. That's what many schools are doing.

There is no quarantine.

MinnieMousse

The OP is talking about holidays to places where there are no quarantine rules in place and where the FCO. have now placed no restrictions.

The business is just choosing to make up their own rules and restrictions.

I guess they cannot dictate to you whether you can go or not but they can make it clear that anything that might happen as a result of the holiday to impede your return to work would have consequences. This could be having to use extra annual leave or maybe taking unpaid leave.