Company changed tune

[Buckybri]

The company where I work in Wales is thriving with positive Covid cases there have been 70 positive cases in the last two weeks , it’s everywhere there and we are not being told , they are keeping it to themselves because they still need the food to go through the door , myself and a friend both have RA and on mtx and biological meds and he phoned them today and asked what’s going on and they told him that he is not classed as high risk anymore , we were furloughs for 6 months and now all of a sudden we will be ok . Myself have put a sick note in for a flare up and I will get paid but my friend now has basically told them that he I won’t be coming in due to his condition and the meds that he is on , but they have told him he has to go in because is not high risk anymore . I think they are running scared and putting profits before the health of their staff , u wonder if someone here has any advice . Many thanks .

[Ali_H]

Hi,Your friend could ask for them to send him a copy of their risk assessment and procedures for making him now safe at work... do via email as emails are legal documents that can be produced at a later date if needed.

All the best

Ali

[sylvi]

Some people don't care for their staff. Your friend wants to go to the drs, and get a sick note darling.xxx

[Hidden]

Many people that were believed to be high risk in the first phase of covid are no longer considered so, and therefore there is an expectation that they return to work. The first thing your friend needs to do is establish from his consultant or GP whether they would still be considered extremely clinically vulnerable. If so, there is a legal requirement for employers to make reasonable adjustment (including furlough where it’s the most appropriate option). If he’s not classed as ECV anymore - and I was on arthritis grounds the first time, with instructions to shield, but am apparently not this second lockdown in England - then strictly speaking, your employer is correct. It’s a bit more nuanced than that, but if you and your friend are no longer ‘on the shielding list’, your employer can ask you to attend work. The WAG guidance on protecting those considered extremely clinically vulnerable is available here, but will only apply if that remains the case:

gov.wales/guidance-protecti...

You should also be able to find other information regarding employment and those with a lower medical risk on the same website - I’d look for the link for you but haven’t got time right now.

[Buckybri in reply to Hidden]

Thank you , we both had letters around 4 weeks ago from the Welsh government saying that we are still high risk but we can go to work and practice the procedures, but I don’t have a problem with that as I have been back at work now for around 7 weeks but what I do have a problem with is the place is crawling with Covid especially in my department and the company are saying nothing . Everyday more and more are tested positive out if 30 people in my department around 12 now have the virus . The thing is you don’t have to be high risk to die from this virus . I feel the company should come clean and tell us what the situation really is and not just carry on as if nothing has happened .

[Hidden in reply to Buckybri]

This seems worrying and somewhat suspect, I have to say. I just went back to the WAG site and have dug up the Employers’ TTP info (Test, Trace, Protect):

gov.wales/employers-coronav...

The page is pretty thorough and directly links to a number of other pages that may be helpful to you and your friend such as the regulations required to make a workplace covid safe (and therefore safe for higher/high risk employees), but quickly reading through, as is the case here in England, if there are multiple positive cases associated with a single workplace, there are public health mechanisms that should be triggered as a result of the test and trace service to ensure things are being properly and safely managed.

There is an ability to anonymously report ‘covid unsafe’ workplaces to the Health and Safety Exec (HSE), but I don’t know if that’s England only off the top of my head. It certainly seems like something may have gone a bit wrong with your workplace and their covid practices, though.

[oldtimer]

I would contact ACAS and ask their advice about what to do. This sounds like bullying rather than the provision of a safe environment for those at risk.

[Buckybri in reply to oldtimer]

It’s being brought up at the Welsh assembly today by our union