Refusing to go to work on health and safety grounds?

mowg

My sister has type 1 diabetes which puts her at higher risk if she were to be diagnosed with Covid-19. She's been asked to come back to work. She went in for two days and found that social distancing wasn't being enforced by her employer, she was told she had to share her old office with a number of other people all of whom are sitting far less than 2 metres apart. Her employer also doesn't replenish the hand soap regularly so handwashing facilities are often not in place.

This is a large employer with plenty of resources, they absolutely could and should be doing more to enforce government guidelines so she's now refusing to go back. Is her job at risk? Can she expect to get paid under the circumstances?

JReacher1

I don't think they'll pay her.  Can she request to be furloughed?

mowg

She was furloughed but the employer has insisted that people come back to work. She agreed to return knowing that she had to bite the bullet sometime and return. She didn't believe for a minute that the employer wouldn't be taking steps to keep to government guidelines.

jonnygee2

This is a large employer with plenty of resources, they absolutely could and should be doing more to enforce government guidelines so she's now refusing to go back. Is her job at risk? Can she expect to get paid under the circumstances?

Generally, dismissing someone who refuses to work based on legitimate health and safety grounds is considered autmatically unfair  .

Her diabtes might not be considered relevant, because although there have been a lot of media articles about a link with diabetes, I don't believe diabetics are currently officially considered to be at risk or have been ordered to isolate.

So the question is whether cramped offices and a lack of hand soap is considered a significant enough HSE issue to stay at home. We are in the middle of a pandemic, so common sense says yes, but also might be hard to demonstrate if this ever went to tribunal (which is never desirable anyway), and clearly there's no precedent for this yet to go on.

I assume the job cannot be done from home? If so, then I think a logical next step would be to try and negotiate that washing facilities remain available and social distancing is maintained. If they do not engage, I would try to take advice from a union (if a member!) on whether refusing to work is viable.

Here's a blog post that covers this.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/covid-19-safe-working-conditions/

You also have to think through scenarios. Whether it's unfair or not, she can still be dismissed, and that then leaves her with the tough option to fight this out at tribunal, which isn't always attractive.

wewpetcom

I am listening and feeling about what you will say. Over a month I had no source of income. Empathy with you

Mrsn

If she refuses to carry out her work then yes her job and pay will ultimately be at risk.

Im assuming that she hasn’t received the shielding letter so to self shield she would have to ask them for unpaid leave which they may or may not agree too.

Has she had the chat about the situation she finds herself in? That really does need to be the first step here. She could raise a grievance but this may backfire on her long term. 

elsien

Type 1 diabetes isn't in the shielding category unless there are other more relevant health conditions, and the evidence it puts her at higher risk seems to be sketchy.
She may be better off focussing with her colleagues about how to make things safer at work for everyone. Is there enough room in the workplace for social distancing to be effective with a bit of reorganisation?  What was the response when she raised it with her manager?

mowg

No she hasn't been told to shield although her GP has told her that if her blood sugar is not well controlled (which it sometimes isn't even though she does everything right) then she is at increased risk of severe complications if she contracts the virus. She has had lung problems some years ago. They never figured out what it was and it did go away, but again, her GP has warned her to avoid any absolutely unnecessary risks. She wants to work, but her employer just doesn't seem to be taking it seriously and neither are her colleagues it seems.

The last straw was one of her colleagues coming straight up to her desk to ask her a question with her face no more than half a foot away. She said she could feel her colleagues breath on her face as she talked. When she asked the colleague to back off she just became defensive and told her not to overeact. It's clear the staff have been given no guidance on social distancing and haven't been told that there may be consequences if they don't respect peoples space. I would have thought an employer would be required to do this at the very least.

jonnygee2

The last straw was her boss coming straight up to her desk to ask her a question with her face no more than half a foot away. She said she could feel her bosses breath on her face as they talked.

I feel like this is a slightly unreasonable 'last straw'. Did she not ask the boss to keep distance? Has she followed this up and tried to reach an agreement about distancing in the workplace?

Choosing not to work is a very drastic step. Unless the danger is imminent - which in this case I don't think it necessarily is - you should really exhaust every possible root to reaching an understanding with the employer instead of just walking out.

mowg

jonnygee2 said:

The last straw was her boss coming straight up to her desk to ask her a question with her face no more than half a foot away. She said she could feel her bosses breath on her face as they talked.

I feel like this is a slightly unreasonable 'last straw'. Did she not ask the boss to keep distance? Has she followed this up and tried to reach an agreement about distancing in the workplace?

Choosing not to work is a very drastic step. Unless the danger is imminent - which in this case I don't think it necessarily is - you should really exhaust every possible root to reaching an understanding with the employer instead of just walking out.

Thanks, I edited the post as it wasn't her boss, I think it was a colleague. She did ask her to back off but the colleague became defensive. She has emailed her line manager explaining her reasons for not returning to work and the circumstances when she'd be willing to return. She just wants them to do more to stick to government guidelines which I don't think is an unreasonable request. They definitely could. The excellent blog post you posted does say "the recent Coronavirus Regulations, which describe the virus as a ‘serious and imminent threat to public health’ so it could be argued that it is or at least may become imminent. Certainly to someone with an underlying condition.

Dox

She has my sympathy, but that's not going to help her. Saying the employer doesn't replenish soap is pretty pathetic; just buy a bar of the stuff (15p from Tesco) and claim on petty cash. Social distancing is a rather harder one to deal with...maybe she needs to start eating a lot of garlic or anything else which will make her breathe socially unacceptable - and no, I'm not jesting.