High risk - 7 day isolating & pay

skimper

Sorry another covid-19 question
My husband is in the high risk category & continuing to work, someone he sits with at work is showing signs of the virus but refusing to self isolate & work is refusing to send him home. My husband has voiced his concerns & told his employers he will take a week off & self isolate until his collegue is feeling better as he doesnt want the risk of catching it if he does turn out to have it. 

At first his employers said he was entitled to ssp but have now back tracked to say he will get nothing. He works full time & been there a year at £23k a year. 

Looking at the gov website it says if you self isolate based on gov guidelines you should be entitled to ssp even if he doesnt show the signs, is that correct?
We want full facts before he goes back to his manager. 

suki1964

You can apply for SSP in you are self isolating due to the corona virus at £94 a week if you are employed 

DanielGodfrey

The problem is that your husband has been too upfront - if you are self-isolating as a pre-cautionary measure and not because you have symptoms of Covid 19, then your employer is entitled to treat your absence as voluntarily and/or unauthorised absence.
That being said, there is clear government guidance on the duties on employers to send staff home who are displaying symptoms of Covid 19 - my advice would be to go back to the manager, explain the two main symptoms of the disease and signpost them to the government guidance to employers on dealing with staff with these symptoms, and to then explain that you are not willing to attend the office when there is a serious and imminent threat to your health and safety. If your employer doesn't then pay SSP for that period whilst you're away from the office, there may be a legal cause of action for detriment. 

skimper

Thanks both. 
He tried explaining the symptoms and showed them the gov website which says either symptom must self isolate but his managers just arent interested, so the guy didnt have both symptoms whilst in work, but he did admit he had both the previous night.
Hes waiting on a phonecall from HR so he can discuss his options with them.