Coronavirus: what rights do you have if you can't work or isolate yourself because of Covid-19?

According to the government, up to a fifth of the UK workforce may be ill at the height of a coronavirus epidemic, but what rights do you have if you can't work or isolate yourself to avoid working 39; catch or spread the virus?

If you are not sick but your boss tells you not to come to work, you should receive your regular wages. But there are few protections in place for those who self-insulate.

Self-isolation

There is no legal right to pay if you are not sick but cannot work because a medical expert has advised you to isolate yourself or quarantine yourself. According to Unison, up to two million workers without sickness pay may not be able to afford two weeks off if they develop symptoms.

People who are abroad in an affected area and are not allowed to return to the UK also do not have the legal right to be paid.

Employers are therefore free to apply their own remuneration policies. They could pay statutory minimum sickness compensation or anything up to full salary for several months.

Employment Dispute Resolution Service Acas says employers must resolve workers' real concerns about the virus. This could mean offering flexible work for example.

If an employee still does not want to enter, they may be able to arrange for vacation or unpaid leave, but the employer is not obligated to accept it.

Failure to report to work could result in disciplinary action.

Free time to take care of someone

You are entitled to time off if you have a dependent who needs you in an emergency, for example if your child's school is closed or sick and you have to deal with it.

The time off must be reasonable and there is no legal right to pay for it. Check your employment contract or your human resources department.

If you get the virus

Employees are legally entitled to sickness benefits, but the amount they receive is likely to be far less than their salary if they work full time.

The statutory minimum wage is 94.25 if you are sick for 4 consecutive full days or more and earn on average at least 118 per week before tax.

However, many organizations offer their employees sickness benefits that go beyond that.

What about zero hour workers and the gig economy?

Temporary agency workers, casual workers and workers on zero-hour contracts are likely to be entitled to at least one statutory sickness benefit.

If you are sick with coronavirus, your rights depend on your type of employment and what is in your contract, says Tom Neil, senior advisor at Acas.

Workers in the gig economy are generally classified as self-employed, which means that they are not eligible for statutory sickness benefit. Accident, sickness and unemployment insurance policies can cover lost wages due to coronavirus infection.

Health insurance is unlikely to cover the cost of self-isolation or loss of income if work dries up because people stay at home in response to the virus.

If you have this type of protection policy, check with your insurer what coverage you have.

The Ubers Partner Protection Policy, for example, covers serious illness and injury if a doctor signs a driver for more than seven days. From the eighth day, drivers are eligible for daily payment for a maximum of 15 days.

Benefit requests

The Minister of Labor and Pensions, Justin Tomlinson, has drawn criticism when he suggested that people rely on benefits if they could not work during the epidemic.

Those whose employers ask them to stay away from the workplace due to coronavirus problems, who do not qualify for statutory sickness benefit, may be able to apply for universal credit and / or a new style support and employment allowance, he said.

Universal credit applicants, however, must wait up to five weeks for their first payment. Since the government predicts that up to one-fifth of the workforce is expected to be ill, which means that a significant number of people may find it hard to make ends meet.

Alternatively, workers who cannot work due to a health problem can apply for employment allowance and support, but only if they have paid national insurance in the past. last two or three years.

The rate for the first 13 weeks is up to 57.90 per week if you are under 25 years of age or up to 73.10 for those over 25 years of age. It then rises to 111.65 depending on the individual circumstances.

A spokesperson for the UK Department for Work and Pensions said: Our staff are ready to help people if they are affected, we invite them to contact us by phone, or their work coach through their online journal , to explain their situation.

Debt advice

If people have to stay at home on less than full wages, more people will go into debt. The Money and Pensions Service estimates that 16.7 million people are in difficulty or trapped, and it is particularly unlikely that they will have the financial resilience to weather a period of reduced income.

Often it takes just a swipe of income to get people into debt, "says Sue Anderson of StepChange, a charity.

Once the immediate threat from the coronavirus has passed, it really needs to be a long-term political goal to improve the financial resilience and functioning of the social protection system so that more people are better off. able to cope with short-term financial shocks without getting caught up in problematic debt.

More debt management advice is available on the StepChanges website: https://www.stepchange.org/