My wife been told she is OK to work... Is she?

MarkVal73

My wife works cleaning the landlord areas of some inner city apartment blocks. So door panels, push plates, glass etc. Vacuum carpets and mop entrance areas. Lifts etc. 

Surely her boss is not correct saying she has to work as gov guidelines say you can still go to work if you can't work from home?

Is this classed as essential?

calcotti

There is nothing that says the work has to be essential. It says 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/full-guidance-on-staying-at-home-and-away-from-others/full-guidance-on-staying-at-home-and-away-from-others

“You should only leave the house for one of four reasons:

• Shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible.
• One form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household.
• Any medical need, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person.
• Travelling to and from work, but only where this absolutely cannot be done from home.”

Clearly your wife’s work cannot be done from home.

mwarby

There is also an argument that your wife’s work is very useful in fighting the virus by cleaning the common areas preventing transmission 

7Phil

Yes, as per the advice as of today she can still go to work unless she should be self-isolating, but must stick to the distancing advice. Cleaning the common areas of apartment blocks sounds essential to me.
If you feel this situation is a risk or the client building houses self-isolating people then you need to raise concerns with the employer in the first instance. Assuming she is an employee (not contractor) the employer is responsible to provide her adequate equipment for her job. This could include additional masks, gloves, different sprays etc as necessary. Also, transport could be an issue. If she uses own transport it will not be.

The advice may change in the coming days as the govt advises more job types to close down. I doubt cleaners will be asked not to work (if they otherwise can safely) in the near future but we don't know how bad this will get.

calcotti

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52022417

The new measures, in place for at least three weeks, tell Britons to only leave home to go to work "where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home". Mr Hancock later said those who cannot work from home should go to work "to keep the country running".