Zero Hours, Tests & Jabs

Grumpy_chap

I was just looking to understand opinions on something.

My wife started a new job in a nursing care home.  It's zero hours, but she gets "enough" hours to make it something rather than nothing.  Most shifts that my wife gets are 10am til 2pm.

A while back they introduced weekly coronavirus tests, which seems sensible.  PCR tests sent to the lab for results.
The first test my wife had to attend on a day that she was not working, and they paid 1 hour for the time. 
After that, the company said time for the test was not paid. 
The weekly test requires arriving half hour before the shift starts, but it is only once a week and my wife always managed to do the test on a day she had a shift.
Then, they introduced daily lateral flow test in addition to the weekly PCR test - this also seems sensible as it gets results straight away.
The daily test requires arriving half an hour before shift time so that the test is complete and the result known before working time. 
On a practical level, my wife is quite happy to have a cuppa in the staffroom before commencing.  However, half an hour extra is unpaid and, added to only 4 hour shifts, is proportionately high.

This week, they did the first round of the vaccine, which my wife was happy enough to accept. The arrangements were changing for whatever reason. 
Initially, everyone was told to be in for 9am, so an hour early for my wife ahead of 10am shift.
The people delivering the vaccines were not on site until 2pm (shift end time for my wife) and she did not get her vaccine until 4pm, so that means all told, 3 hours over and above the 4 hours shift, which is nearly double.
The company have said time for the vaccine is unpaid.

My wife is pleased to have found a job following redundancy in first lockdown, and also pleased to have received the vaccine.  She does not want to "rock the boat", so will take a pragmatic approach to things.

I just wondered whether the consensus opinion is that the time for vaccine and daily / weekly tests should be paid time or unpaid time.  What thoughts does anyone have please?

JamoLew

I think for vaccine its not totally unreasonable, otherwise, I cant see the 24hr thing working very well - for the tests however - I'm not sure.

Can they not give the staff the LFT to do themselves at home before they leave for work ?

Might be worth suggesting anyway, especially if staff are using public transport for work.

We were just given a box of 25 from work last Nov - so there is no practical or technical reason 

sheramber

Presumably other   staff are similarly affected. How do they feel about it?
A collective approach is better than a single one.

kaMelo

Like JamoLew said, I don't see any reason why they cannot give staff the box to do tests at home as the NHS have done, My OH and daughter were just given boxes of LFT's and told to do twice weekly.  Any positive or inconclusive results, do not come into work, contact them to arrange a PCR test.
The more you think about it the more it makes sense to do tests at at home prior to going to work as a positive result means you reduce possible transmission by not going in. If you're at work when you find out then you've already increased the risk of transmission.

As for the vaccine, that's unfortunate but I think I'd be tempted to view it like this.
Getting the vaccine from a GP or vaccine centre is a process that would take a couple of hours of your time. Look at it in a positive light, she's vaccinated rather than it took a couple of hours unpaid.

Thrugelmir

I'm sure that there's many people who would happily accept the job with the time unpaid at the current time. Unemployment hasn't peaked yet. Not as if she's actually working. 

Morrigan_2020

Thrugelmir said:

I'm sure that there's many people who would happily accept the job with the time unpaid at the current time. Unemployment hasn't peaked yet. Not as if she's actually working. 

We will need to be careful not to let high unemployment start eroding worker's rights and allowing for poor treatment to go unchallenged. 

Thrugelmir

Morrigan_2020 said:

Thrugelmir said:

I'm sure that there's many people who would happily accept the job with the time unpaid at the current time. Unemployment hasn't peaked yet. Not as if she's actually working. 

We will need to be careful not to let high unemployment start eroding worker's rights and allowing for poor treatment to go unchallenged. 

What rights have been eroded and need to be challenged?  

We live in a world of illusion where somebody else pays the bill. 

Morrigan_2020

Thrugelmir said:

Morrigan_2020 said:

Thrugelmir said:

I'm sure that there's many people who would happily accept the job with the time unpaid at the current time. Unemployment hasn't peaked yet. Not as if she's actually working. 

We will need to be careful not to let high unemployment start eroding worker's rights and allowing for poor treatment to go unchallenged. 

What rights have been eroded and need to be challenged?  

We live in a world of illusion where somebody else pays the bill. 

We as a society will need to make sure that workers aren't expected to put up with poorer or unlawful treatment just because they are easily replaced. 

Your second sentence appears meaningless. 

GrumpyDil

I don't believe anyone is suggesting worker's rights and treatment  should be eroded, merely pointing out that we are in a situation where there has to be give and take on both sides.
I agree it would be better for tests to be given to staff to complete at home but the vaccine I would make the time to go as no one is going to be paid to get a vaccine. 

sheramber

Grumpy_chap said:

I was just looking to understand opinions on something.

My wife started a new job in a nursing care home.  It's zero hours, but she gets "enough" hours to make it something rather than nothing.  Most shifts that my wife gets are 10am til 2pm.

A while back they introduced weekly coronavirus tests, which seems sensible.  PCR tests sent to the lab for results.
The first test my wife had to attend on a day that she was not working, and they paid 1 hour for the time. 
After that, the company said time for the test was not paid. 
The weekly test requires arriving half hour before the shift starts, but it is only once a week and my wife always managed to do the test on a day she had a shift.
Then, they introduced daily lateral flow test in addition to the weekly PCR test - this also seems sensible as it gets results straight away.
The daily test requires arriving half an hour before shift time so that the test is complete and the result known before working time. 
On a practical level, my wife is quite happy to have a cuppa in the staffroom before commencing.  However, half an hour extra is unpaid and, added to only 4 hour shifts, is proportionately high.

This week, they did the first round of the vaccine, which my wife was happy enough to accept. The arrangements were changing for whatever reason. 
Initially, everyone was told to be in for 9am, so an hour early for my wife ahead of 10am shift.
The people delivering the vaccines were not on site until 2pm (shift end time for my wife) and she did not get her vaccine until 4pm, so that means all told, 3 hours over and above the 4 hours shift, which is nearly double.
The company have said time for the vaccine is unpaid.

My wife is pleased to have found a job following redundancy in first lockdown, and also pleased to have received the vaccine.  She does not want to "rock the boat", so will take a pragmatic approach to things.

I just wondered whether the consensus opinion is that the time for vaccine and daily / weekly tests should be paid time or unpaid time.  What thoughts does anyone have please?

if she wasn't working during the 2 hours of waiting then why should she be paid. 
I tis no different as if she had come home and had to go to a vaccine centre or GP tog et eh vaccine.  It would have taken up some of her free time.

Morrigan_2020

GrumpyDil said:

I don't believe anyone is suggesting worker's rights and treatment  should be eroded, merely pointing out that we are in a situation where there has to be give and take on both sides.
I agree it would be better for tests to be given to staff to complete at home but the vaccine I would make the time to go as no one is going to be paid to get a vaccine. 

I agree, I would too, the vaccine thing is a one off and something we should all be grateful for.  I went in to work on my day off to get mine too, now that I think about it, although I didn't consider it in those terms I was just really pleased. 

Being required to attend work 30 minutes early every day is not a one off and is not reasonable though. If that time is essential to do the job then it should be paid, or the tests should be provided to complete at somewhere you can do it while still getting on with your own stuff (although the accuracy of the test goes from around 50% to over 75% when administered by a trained professional, so maybe that's a factor in the decision.)

We can't start to have situations where people who challenge unfair employment practices are told 'well if you don't like it someone else will be desperate enough to put up with it, so off you go.'