The UK’s lowest-paid workers should be on full wages while self-isolating so they can afford to comply with efforts to protect public health, campaigners have said.
The suggestion, one of several being put forward as part of a proposed overhaul of the statutory sick pay (SSP) system, follows numerous reports that have stressed that the lowest paid have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the public health benefits of symptomatic workers self-isolating to avoid spreading the virus,” the campaigners said. “Those workers who are not entitled to SSP or who cannot survive on £95 per week are more likely to go into work when ill because they cannot afford not to.”
The group, which includes the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the Bakers and Allied Food Workers Union (BFAWU), added that they had documented instances in which people who were unable to live on the money they were being paid while self-isolating had felt forced to return to work.
“If people can’t afford to live it puts them in the impossible situation of having to work while potentially unwell – putting their lives and those of their colleagues, customers and even patients at risk,” they said.
The current statutory sick pay rate of £95.85 a week represents about a quarter of the minimum wage for a full-time worker aged 25 years or older. It can be paid for up to 28 weeks, is only available to people who earn at least £120 a week and workers can only become eligible on their fourth day off.
According to a Trades Union Congress (TUC) estimate, more than 1.8 million people miss out on sick pay when they are ill – the vast majority of them women.
Instead, the campaigners argue, sick pay should be the worker’s full wage for the first six weeks, before reverting to an enhanced statutory sick pay rate for the following 22 weeks to take account of the long recovery times seen by some Covid patients. They argue the scheme should start on day one and be open to everyone by removing the lower earnings threshold.
The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, has previously called for the government to ensure no one is forced into debt in order to comply with requirements to self-isolate, though Labour is not backing the campaign for them to be given full pay.
In July, Dodds wrote to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to say that the UK’s provisions for the lower-paid workers represent “one of the lowest levels of support in Europe”. She said: “People will want to do the right thing to keep themselves and other safe. But, faced with the prospect of being unable to pay bills or put food on the table, many may face a really hard decision about whether to keep going to work, putting themselves and others at risk.”
The campaign is being orchestrated by the Labour-linked leftwing group Don’t Leave, Organise, which was set up by Jewish Voice for Labour, Red Labour and the Labour Representation Committee and backed by the BFAWU and the FBU.
The Department for Work and Pensions said statutory sick pay was a “vital safety net”, adding that officials had made it payable from day one for those whose illnesses are related to Covid-19, as well as having “extended it to those self-isolating and refunded employers with up to 250 staff the cost of up to a fortnight’s SSP for absence related to coronavirus”. Those whose illnesses are not related to Covid-19 still only become eligible on their fourth day of illness.
The spokesman said: “We have also consulted on further reforms to SSP and will set out our response later this year. People who are self-isolating are able to claim universal credit and advances are available to help people get money quickly. They may also be eligible to claim employment and support allowance.”