The UK has entered a new phase of the pandemic the government calls “living with Covid”: the rules have gone and people must instead exercise “restraint and responsibility” to avoid spreading the virus, prime minister Boris Johnson has said.
“We have a habit of going back to work or going into work when we’re not well,” he noted. “People contrast that with Germany, for instance, where I’m told they’re much more disciplined about not going to work if you’re sick. I’m just suggesting that might be something we could learn.”
But it’s much easier to exercise “restraint and responsibility” when you can afford it. In Germany, employees are paid their full salary in the initial weeks of their illness. The UK, by contrast, is a country where the more you need decent sick pay, the less likely you are to get it. Almost 60 per cent of employees receive full pay from their employers’ company schemes when off sick, according to a survey by the TUC. But just over 30 per cent receive statutory sick pay or nothing at all. The former group are more likely to be managers and professionals who have a financial cushion for contingencies anyway; the latter are more likely to be in low paid jobs that only just cover the bills.
Statutory sick pay in the UK is one of the most meagre in the OECD. The weekly payment is just £96.35. For the almost 2mn low-paid workers who earn less than the lower earnings limit of £120 a week, it is zero. Before the pandemic, workers only received SSP from the fourth day of their illness. The government scrapped the waiting period when Covid hit, but has now announced plans to reinstate it.
The argument against making sick pay more generous is that it is a cost to employers that might encourage workers to bunk off. But in a pandemic the greater risk is that people go to work when they shouldn’t. Official data show the percentage of working hours lost to sickness absence in the UK has declined for two decades and hit a fresh low in 2020 even as the pandemic raged (this may in part reflect the number of people who were furloughed or working from home).
A survey by academics last year of almost 13,000 UK workers found those working in closer contact to clients and customers were less likely to have access to employer-provided sick pay. Workers without access to sick pay were also more likely to say they would go into work when unwell.
“From a public perspective, it exposes the risk of accelerating the spread of viruses by creating an incentive for workers to show up at work when it would be socially beneficial for them to stay at home,” the authors wrote. This has real world consequences. One official study found care homes that offered their staff sick pay were less likely to have coronavirus cases than those that didn’t.
Many employers seem open to this argument. A survey of more than 1,000 HR professionals and decision makers by the CIPD found that nearly two-thirds thought statutory sick pay was too low and should be raised. Even 57 per cent of small and medium sized companies supported the idea.
In a recent consultation on statutory sick pay, meanwhile, the government recorded that 75 per cent of respondents agreed it should be extended to the almost 2mn people who earn less than £120 a week. “This measure was supported by small and large employer respondents alike,” the government wrote before announcing its conclusion: the consultation had “posed several important questions . . . which require further consideration” but “now is not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system”.
If now is not the right time to improve this unequal system, as we ask people to show “restraint and responsibility” to keep each other safe, it rather begs the question: when is?
I can’t afford to take a week off where I get paid around £80. Especially now my utility bills have gone up around that per month.
It’s not even just about COVID. It’s about all infectious illness.
> In Germany, employees are paid their full salary in the initial weeks of their illness.
Required by law to pay [100% of their salary](https://www.howtogermany.com/pages/employee-rights.html) or wages for the first 6 weeks. Followed by 72 weeks on 70% pay through either statutory or price insurance benefits. Wild.
One thing often not talked about that also causes people to go in to work, but sits at the other end of the financial spectrum from those who can’t afford time off, is those who work for companies that aggressively monitor time off.
Plenty of people who are not wealthy, but average earners (median UK full time salary is ~£31k), who can afford a week on SSP will still go into work because of sick day monitoring via something like the Bradford Score, which can be used against you if it comes to annual appraisals, pay reviews, or redundancy talks. I’ve known plenty of financially secure while collar folk who could afford a month or more on SSP who make a point of coming into work to keep their perfect streak of zero sick days.
This all comes down to increasing workers rights. We need both greater sick pay levels, and stronger workers rights when it comes to unfair dismissal and redundancies.
I’ve never worked anywhere that I didn’t just notify my manager and not work that day. Of course all my work was still there when I got back…
I had a fit note for 28 days when I found out about the news regarding my brain tumour, 28 days of SSP almost ruined me. Present day, find out I am now epileptic after a seizure on the 31st of January, had to return to work within 3 days without adjustment to medication as it would be SSP. Only 4 weeks into the adjustment of my medication and I am on the edge of quitting my job and financing my life through debt just to get by without massive depression.
Illness is punishable in the UK, it is for a lack of a better word, sickening.
I find it unimaginable that adjustments will be made for infection illness.
Better sick pay has been a must for decades, and it’s ridiculous that even with the pandemic SSP is as low as it is. What the hell is 90-odd quid a week supposed to cover?
I’ve been at companies that actually paid for sick days, but they had a really rigorous procedure when you got back to work and I was once told “off the record” that I had to stop being off sick after 2 days sick in 6 months.
At least if you’re sick at a place where they don’t pay, they tend to care less about sick days.
On the GOV.UK website, the cases for today were over 200,00+ and deaths 700+. High figures 😭
What’s been wrong over the last month?
We’ve been living with covid just fine, haven’t we?
11 comments
The UK has entered a new phase of the pandemic the government calls “living with Covid”: the rules have gone and people must instead exercise “restraint and responsibility” to avoid spreading the virus, prime minister Boris Johnson has said.
“We have a habit of going back to work or going into work when we’re not well,” he noted. “People contrast that with Germany, for instance, where I’m told they’re much more disciplined about not going to work if you’re sick. I’m just suggesting that might be something we could learn.”
But it’s much easier to exercise “restraint and responsibility” when you can afford it. In Germany, employees are paid their full salary in the initial weeks of their illness. The UK, by contrast, is a country where the more you need decent sick pay, the less likely you are to get it. Almost 60 per cent of employees receive full pay from their employers’ company schemes when off sick, according to a survey by the TUC. But just over 30 per cent receive statutory sick pay or nothing at all. The former group are more likely to be managers and professionals who have a financial cushion for contingencies anyway; the latter are more likely to be in low paid jobs that only just cover the bills.
Statutory sick pay in the UK is one of the most meagre in the OECD. The weekly payment is just £96.35. For the almost 2mn low-paid workers who earn less than the lower earnings limit of £120 a week, it is zero. Before the pandemic, workers only received SSP from the fourth day of their illness. The government scrapped the waiting period when Covid hit, but has now announced plans to reinstate it.
The argument against making sick pay more generous is that it is a cost to employers that might encourage workers to bunk off. But in a pandemic the greater risk is that people go to work when they shouldn’t. Official data show the percentage of working hours lost to sickness absence in the UK has declined for two decades and hit a fresh low in 2020 even as the pandemic raged (this may in part reflect the number of people who were furloughed or working from home).
A survey by academics last year of almost 13,000 UK workers found those working in closer contact to clients and customers were less likely to have access to employer-provided sick pay. Workers without access to sick pay were also more likely to say they would go into work when unwell.
“From a public perspective, it exposes the risk of accelerating the spread of viruses by creating an incentive for workers to show up at work when it would be socially beneficial for them to stay at home,” the authors wrote. This has real world consequences. One official study found care homes that offered their staff sick pay were less likely to have coronavirus cases than those that didn’t.
Many employers seem open to this argument. A survey of more than 1,000 HR professionals and decision makers by the CIPD found that nearly two-thirds thought statutory sick pay was too low and should be raised. Even 57 per cent of small and medium sized companies supported the idea.
In a recent consultation on statutory sick pay, meanwhile, the government recorded that 75 per cent of respondents agreed it should be extended to the almost 2mn people who earn less than £120 a week. “This measure was supported by small and large employer respondents alike,” the government wrote before announcing its conclusion: the consultation had “posed several important questions . . . which require further consideration” but “now is not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system”.
If now is not the right time to improve this unequal system, as we ask people to show “restraint and responsibility” to keep each other safe, it rather begs the question: when is?
I can’t afford to take a week off where I get paid around £80. Especially now my utility bills have gone up around that per month.
It’s not even just about COVID. It’s about all infectious illness.
> In Germany, employees are paid their full salary in the initial weeks of their illness.
Required by law to pay [100% of their salary](https://www.howtogermany.com/pages/employee-rights.html) or wages for the first 6 weeks. Followed by 72 weeks on 70% pay through either statutory or price insurance benefits. Wild.
One thing often not talked about that also causes people to go in to work, but sits at the other end of the financial spectrum from those who can’t afford time off, is those who work for companies that aggressively monitor time off.
Plenty of people who are not wealthy, but average earners (median UK full time salary is ~£31k), who can afford a week on SSP will still go into work because of sick day monitoring via something like the Bradford Score, which can be used against you if it comes to annual appraisals, pay reviews, or redundancy talks. I’ve known plenty of financially secure while collar folk who could afford a month or more on SSP who make a point of coming into work to keep their perfect streak of zero sick days.
This all comes down to increasing workers rights. We need both greater sick pay levels, and stronger workers rights when it comes to unfair dismissal and redundancies.
I’ve never worked anywhere that I didn’t just notify my manager and not work that day. Of course all my work was still there when I got back…
I had a fit note for 28 days when I found out about the news regarding my brain tumour, 28 days of SSP almost ruined me. Present day, find out I am now epileptic after a seizure on the 31st of January, had to return to work within 3 days without adjustment to medication as it would be SSP. Only 4 weeks into the adjustment of my medication and I am on the edge of quitting my job and financing my life through debt just to get by without massive depression.
Illness is punishable in the UK, it is for a lack of a better word, sickening.
I find it unimaginable that adjustments will be made for infection illness.
Better sick pay has been a must for decades, and it’s ridiculous that even with the pandemic SSP is as low as it is. What the hell is 90-odd quid a week supposed to cover?
I’ve been at companies that actually paid for sick days, but they had a really rigorous procedure when you got back to work and I was once told “off the record” that I had to stop being off sick after 2 days sick in 6 months.
At least if you’re sick at a place where they don’t pay, they tend to care less about sick days.
On the GOV.UK website, the cases for today were over 200,00+ and deaths 700+. High figures 😭
What’s been wrong over the last month?
We’ve been living with covid just fine, haven’t we?