‘Time Out to Help Out’: Metro Mayors call to protect pay when staff self-isolate

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham

Metro mayors in the North West have called on the government to protect pay for workers who are told to self-isolate but cannot work from home.

A new national campaign called “Time Out to Help Out” has been launched by the mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City region with backing from trade unions Unison, GMB, Usdaw, Unite and CWU as well as businesses.

This comes as more than 22,000 people in Greater Manchester have been identified as needing to self-isolate so far, but many fear they will not be paid.

Mayors Burnham and Rotheram are calling for employees to still be paid their full normal wage if they are requested to self-isolate and are unable to work from home, and for the government to compensate employers accordingly.

Where an employee is receiving statutory sick pay of £95.85 per week, the employer should be able to claim back the difference between this and their normal wage from the government, the mayors have argued.

They also said self-employed workers should be able to claim for loss of earnings in the same way as those required to go on jury service.

Mr Burnham said: “NHS Test and Trace will never work properly until all employees are supported to follow its requests. It’s right that everybody plays their part in helping to get Covid-19 under control.

“But what’s not right is forcing some of our workers – many doing the lowest paid jobs or self-employed – to make a choice between self-isolating or face a drastic loss of income.

“That’s why we’re proposing an alternative system that’s currently in place to make sure workers are paid fairly if they are requested to self-isolate.

“Only by ending the pay penalty will we see the national NHS Test and Trace service reach everyone they need to, which is currently standing at 53 per cent in Greater Manchester.”

Speaking at a remote press conference on Monday, Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said many workers face a “hideous” choice of doing the right thing for public health or take a huge hit to their pay.

She added: “I think there’s blatant blue-collar discrimination going on here. It’s all very well for ministers to say that people can work from home and self-isolate at the same time, but the simple truth is, most blue-collar works in blue-collar jobs can’t. And it seems to me that everybody should be entitled to decent sick pay at a level that they can look after their families on.”

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