Employers Cut Sick Pay for Unvaccinated Employees
Sick pay arrangements are under the spotlight for unvaccinated employees who are COVID-negative but who are nevertheless required to isolate due to being a close contact of, or sharing a household with, a positive case.
Early on in the pandemic, the Government legislated for statuary sick pay (SSP) to be payable during self-isolation regardless of whether the individual concerned had tested positive for COVID-19. At that time, the majority of employers with contractual sick pay schemes followed suit, and continued to pay full sick pay during self-isolation periods.
As the Omicron variant spread, sickness absence levels increased, and different isolation rules are now in place which turn on vaccination status. In response to the spread of the Omicron variant, the Government has reintroduced the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme for employers with fewer than 250 employees. Whilst the scheme goes some way to recover the costs associated with high levels of sickness absence, some staff are being required to isolate multiple times, with both the cost of sick pay, and staff absence levels soaring.
High profile employers including Ikea, Next and Wessex Water have now introduced policies to limit pay to SSP only in circumstances where unvaccinated staff are COVID-negative but required to isolate, and do not have a medical exemption or mitigating circumstances to explain their unvaccinated status. Staff who go on to test positive for COVID-19 will still be entitled to full sick pay from their diagnosis until they have recovered or exhausted their sick pay entitlement in the usual way.
Best Practice
A written vaccination policy is a useful tool to clarify sick pay arrangements for staff in these circumstances. We have developed a template policy that can be used to explain an employer's overall approach to vaccination, to encourage staff to get vaccinated, and to set out sick pay arrangements for unvaccinated staff who are required to self-isolate.
Employers should take care to take individual circumstances into account in order to mitigate the risk of discrimination claims. Employers should also consider whether the introduction of any such policy could breach staff contracts, and if in any doubt, individual advice should be taken in order to manage potential risk.
