Many are starting to worry as the Coronavirus continues to spread globally. It may not be long before workers start to phone in sick with coronavirus like symptoms. How will you handle it?
As you will have read or heard, the virus has now spread beyond its source in China and it has now infected tens of thousands of people globally, including 36 cases in the UK. The Coronavirus has been categorised as a “public health emergency of international concern” by the World Health Organisation. Symptoms include, fever and a cough that may progress to a severe pneumonia, causing shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. It can of course cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people and those with long-term health conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease.
The UK Governments current guidance is that if anyone has travelled from the following areas since 19th February, you should call NHS 111 and stay indoors and avoid contact with other people even if you do not have symptoms:
- Iran
- specific lockdown areas in northern Italy as designated by the Government of Italy
- ‘special care zones’ in South Korea as designated by the Government of the Republic of South Korea
- Hubei province (returned in the past 14 days)
If anyone has returned from these areas since 19 February and develop symptoms, however mild, they should stay indoors at home and avoid contact with other people immediately and call NHS 111. You do not need to follow this advice if you have no symptoms.
- northern Italy (anywhere north of Pisa, Florence and Rimini)
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Myanmar
Travellers from other parts of China and other specified areas
This advice applies to travellers who have returned to the UK from the following areas:
- China
- Thailand
- Japan
- Republic of Korea
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- Singapore
- Malaysia
- Macau
In the last 14 days and they develop the above symptoms, even if they’re minor, they should immediately stay indoors at home, avoid contact with other people, not go to work and call NHS 111.
So, if any of your employees fall into this category, you have to expect them not to come to work and to be signed off sick for up to two weeks, i.e. until 14 days after their return from the specified country, if they have the symptoms.
You may start to have your workers phone in sick with Coronavirus like symptoms where they haven’t recently travelled to the above-named countries, but they could conceivably have caught the virus elsewhere. In most cases, a fever and a cough will not be coronavirus but, without formal medical tests, it may soon become difficult to distinguish between those cases that are Coronavirus and those that aren’t. For those employees who may have contracted the virus and phone in sick, you should not encourage them to come in if they are ill but should instead advise them to follow the steps above and to stay at home until fully recovered. You owe a duty of care to your staff to protect them from risks of harm to their health and safety, and this includes the risks of harm from a highly contagious virus. Ensuring that potentially infected staff stay at home will help prevent the virus from being spread to other members of staff and the wider community. These employees will be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay or company/contractual/discretionary sick pay, in the normal way.
If however, you suspect that a worker is using this virus as a way to avoid attending work, you should investigate it as a potential disciplinary matter. Bear in mind that you will need sufficient evidence to support your suspicions which will prove on the balance of probabilities, that the employee wasn’t genuinely sick.
It may reach a point where some employees are afraid to attend work for fear of catching coronavirus, please be sensitive to genuine concerns, particularly in relation to those with underlying health conditions or compromised immune systems or who are pregnant. For these employees, consider trying to agree different working arrangements, such as working from home. Otherwise, an unreasonable refusal to work by an employee is a disciplinary offence; employees aren’t entitled to refuse to attend work on the basis of fear alone (unless there’s a clear health and safety risk).
Now maybe a good time to review your business continuity plan – if the coronavirus becomes a pandemic virus, you must be prepared to handle absence rates of 12% or more over the peak period of it (in addition to normal levels of staff absence). Encourage good personal hygiene amongst staff, look to adopt video conferencing instead of face-to-face meetings, ask staff to observe a personal space of at least 1 meter, suspend non-essential business travel and work-related social events. Please ensure that you keep an eye on latest news as things are changing daily and advice may do also! https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public