Office won’t let isolating staff work from home

[Whathefisgoingon]

It’s a phone based role, obviously we are all able to work from home however we were all hauled in months ago because “morale”’is better when we are all in & “productivity” dropped at home apparently. Nonetheless, the job can be done remotely.

More and more of us are now being pinged or contacted by test & trace to isolate, and we are not allowed to work from home, so we get statutory sick pay only.

Is anyone else’s employer being this outrageous?

To be honest I don’t think your employer is being outrageous as you say at the beginning that morale is better in the office and the important one here that ‘productivity dropped’ when working from home this is why your employer wants the staff in. They are looking after the business and making sure you have jobs at the end of the day.

^^ This

Well you do t have to self isolate if you’re pinged by the app, only if Test and Trace call you.

I don’t think your employer is being unreasonable here. They’ve made a clear business case that staff are required in the office.

I agree with you OP

I'm with you OP, if phoned by test and trace I thought you were legally required to self isolate.

It's odd as some employers are being ultra cautious and don't want you in with even a hint of a sniffle and they'll pay you full salary to stop you coming in and infecting everyone else.

They’ve said that they want everyone to work from office rather than remotely but as we can do the job from home it seems entirely unreasonable to me to refuse 1 or 2 alternate people every couple of weeks the ability to work from home.

Statutory pay is all we will get.

I think that’s really poor of your employer OP

@MouldyPotato Sounds sensible to me. They couldn’t give less of a crap where I work! We’ve had positive cases and where test & trace has completely failed to make contact, they’ve simply allowed the people that sat directly next to them (no masks) to continue working in office.

I don't think it is unreasonble to ask you to ignore the pings, given that everyone else is anyway.

But in terms of being called up by T&T I think it's your legal obligation to self isolate and I would have thought it was the employer's responsibility to comply, but if they are saying ok stay at home and get statutory sick pay then that's pretty shitty of them as they are putting you in an awkward situation.

Whathefisgoingon can you find another job? Or report them to the council?

@Frazzled2207

I don't think it is unreasonble to ask you to ignore the pings, given that everyone else is anyway.

But in terms of being called up by T&T I think it's your legal obligation to self isolate and I would have thought it was the employer's responsibility to comply, but if they are saying ok stay at home and get statutory sick pay then that's pretty shitty of them as they are putting you in an awkward situation.

Do you think that those who have to isolate and are unable to wfh are all isolating on full pay or something?? Isolating on ssp (or nothing if temp/0 hrs ) is a reality for the majority unfortunately.

@MouldyPotato

Whathefisgoingon can you find another job? Or report them to the council?

Report them for what exactly?? If your contract states where you are expected to work from, ie the office, then it's not unreasonable for them to say you have to take ssp if you are unable to attend your specified place of work

@Wellbythebloodyhell how is it not unreasonable? As a collective it may not have been “productive” working remotely but an individual doing so for 10 days isn’t an issue. It’s about control and management wanting to micro manage and watch staffs every single move - very toxic and unhealthy.

If you are just pinged by the app you do not have to isolate or stay at home by law remember - it is voluntary. So just go in to work surely? It is only if you have a call or email from Test and trace that you are obliged by law to stay at home.

@Wellbythebloodyhell
Yes I am aware and that’s pretty awful but in OPs case she physically can wfh and if she is legally required to isolate, if for example called by t&t, then they should allow wfh.

And if OP has been sat next to an infected person, even if no call from t&t, then clearly it’s the right thing to do.

Imagine if essential workers all isolated for every ping. We were told to delete the app and only isolate if contacted by track & trace. It's not had an impact on our services we provide and we've been operating this way for the best part of a year.

I think that's a ridiculous and outdated mentality and wholly unfair: if you can do your job from home and get paid you should be allowed to do that.
I'm going into my second back to back isolation period and if I couldn't work from home I'd be screwed!
Surely it will just encourage people not to isolate if they won't get paid, it's such a bad call on their part and I'm sorry to hear this.

Different scenario but my DD has a zero hour contract job. We are all isolating because we were a close contact of someone who has tested positive. She rang her employer to let them know that she couldn't work until isolation was over.

A few days later she was told that she could have a test and come back. I told her she couldn't. After that, she was messaged so many times asking her where she was, when and for how long and for proof. We don't have proof. The person we were with has his positive result. He told T&T but we haven't been contacted even though we definitely should have been.

The week following her isolation ending, she has been given no shifts.

@Whathefisgoingon

It’s a phone based role, obviously we are all able to work from home however we were all hauled in months ago because “morale”’is better when we are all in & “productivity” dropped at home apparently. Nonetheless, the job can be done remotely.

More and more of us are now being pinged or contacted by test & trace to isolate, and we are not allowed to work from home, so we get statutory sick pay only.

Is anyone else’s employer being this outrageous?

But you can claim the covid isolation payment which is more than SSP

Ask for a copy of their risk assessment OP. That's a good a place to start as any.

It's quite short-sighted as productivity will drop off a cliff if there's a covid outbreak and half the staff is off sick with covid at the same time. If it's a call centre type environment then that's not an unlikely outcome with such a highly transmissible virus.

You have no legal obligation to self isolate after a ping from the app. Only if you are contacted by test and trace. So if you are just acting on advice from the clearly unfit for purpose app then it is reasonable to expect you to go into the office.

To be honest, the world beating app seems to have been pinging half of the population willy nilly recently and many people have no further confidence in it. Plenty of us have now deleted it.

@HalzTangz you can only claim that if you get top up benefits like UC or tax credits.

Some of the responses are confusing me, I read it that the employer isn't trying to stop the employees isolating, they are saying they can't WFH during that time. Is that right?

If so they aren't being very accommodating but I don't think they are breaking any rules. It seems a short sighted policy that will lead to more cases and reduced productivity again

As a customer though I'm sick of trying to get a proper service from phone staff who are WFH so I do agree with them getting you back in the office.