Employer breaking covid rules

lincroft1710

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, 

Not much point in having a Police Service then!!

jimi_man

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

HeinzVarieties

sheramber said:

HeinzVarieties said:

What's the point of reporting it if the director has said he'll cover the fine?

I actually agree with the employee that they've come from a lower risk country so what's the point?  The reason why they don't change the requirements due to different COVID levels is because it'd be an even bigger clusterfudge than the current rule changes are.  And they've done an LFT so they can hardly be accused of having a blasé attitude.

Plus, the employee is going to be penalised for something that isn't their fault.  If you were faced with losing your job or a small chance of a fine I think we all know what you'd do.

Who said anything about being fired? 

The employee can be fined and the employer can also be fined.

What is the point of having rules if people can pick and choose what they do.

Nobody did, it's called "being implied."  I very much doubt the employee would choose to turn up at work when there was an option of just sitting on their backside getting paid for it otherwise.

And I agree there is very little point to most of the COVID laws when there is virtually no enforcement.  The lot of them should be scrapped.

martinbuckley

virginblue4 said:

Hi everyone,

I am just after some advice regarding a colleague / employer breaking quarantine rules after travelling abroad. To set the scene, I work in an office and the director has a complete phobia and a blanket ban of people working from home. 

A colleague travelled to France (transiting through Switzerland) last Thursday and returned to the UK yesterday evening. 

Current rules say that if you are returning from a non red list country (I realise red list countries are being scrapped) then you must take a day two PCR test within 48 hours of arriving and quarantine until you receive a negative result. My colleague took the test this morning around 8am and then came to work just after 9am. When questioned about this (by me), he said that he was sure it was going to be negative as he took a lateral flow yesterday as a precaution and that the country he came from had lower case numbers than the UK. Whilst he isn’t wrong, this is still a breach of the rules and I see it as him putting the office at risk directly before Christmas. 

I raised the issue with our health and safety manager, who had already been told about this by someone else. They raised it with the company director who accused her of ‘stirring up a !!!!!! storm’. The director then advised the colleague who was meant to be quarantining he wants him to stay at work and that if they get fined, he will cover the cost of the fine for them. 

I think this is outrageous behaviour and just says to me that they are putting profits before safety (yet they always bang on about being a family business). 

What are my options? Should I go as far as reporting to the police (through the official covid breach section on their website - obviously this is not a 999 issue). Who else can I report this issue to?

I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter. 

Thank you in advance!

Sounds like you have a micro-managing boss there, if he cant trust his staff to WFH, unless of course the work cannot be done at home. But as you use the word "office", I fail to see how this would be the case, particularly almost 2 years since WFH became a common practice.

In the case of the employee, if the trip was personal reasons and not business, then my understanding is that any subsequent quarantine would be done as Annual or unpaid leave, but that would be covered in your company HR policy (if you have one).

As others have said, maybe its time to look elsewhere for a job in 2022...

[Deleted User]

jimi_man said:

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

Have you not been paying attention to the news?

The Met have said that they are not investigating the various Tory xmas parties that happened last year. Their stated reason is that they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past. Make of that what you will, but that statement seems pretty clear. If the COVID rule breaking is not on-going they aren't interested.

Your local police force may take a different attitude to the Met, who knows.

Jeremy535897

[Deleted User] said:

jimi_man said:

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

Have you not been paying attention to the news?

The Met have said that they are not investigating the various Tory xmas parties that happened last year. Their stated reason is that they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past. Make of that what you will, but that statement seems pretty clear. If the COVID rule breaking is not on-going they aren't interested.

Your local police force may take a different attitude to the Met, who knows.

It depends on the seriousness of the crime. There are a significant number of high profile investigations into crimes, or allegations of crimes, that took place even fifty years ago.

RogerBareford

[Deleted User] said:

jimi_man said:

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

Have you not been paying attention to the news?

The Met have said that they are not investigating the various Tory xmas parties that happened last year. Their stated reason is that they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past. Make of that what you will, but that statement seems pretty clear. If the COVID rule breaking is not on-going they aren't interested.

Your local police force may take a different attitude to the Met, who knows.

That's not exactly true. That statement is a slight variation of comments that Dominic Raab made in an interview about not investigating things from a year ago.

But obviously that blanket statements isn't true because the police do investigate crimes from very long ago, with many notable cases being reported over the years.

What the Met have actually said is something along the lines of that they wouldn't routinely investigate retrospective breaches of covid regulations. So what your saying about them only being interested in current Covid rule breaking that is generally true unless they have some reason to investigate past breaches.

[Deleted User]

RogerBareford said:

[Deleted User] said:

jimi_man said:

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

Have you not been paying attention to the news?

The Met have said that they are not investigating the various Tory xmas parties that happened last year. Their stated reason is that they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past. Make of that what you will, but that statement seems pretty clear. If the COVID rule breaking is not on-going they aren't interested.

Your local police force may take a different attitude to the Met, who knows.

That's not exactly true. That statement is a slight variation of comments that Dominic Raab made in an interview about not investigating things from a year ago.

But obviously that blanket statements isn't true because the police do investigate crimes from very long ago, with many notable cases being reported over the years.

What the Met have actually said is something along the lines of that they wouldn't routinely investigate retrospective breaches of covid regulations. So what your saying about them only being interested in current Covid rule breaking that is generally true unless they have some reason to investigate past breaches.

There is legal action pending, the current advice from experts is that failure to investigate is likely to be unlawful. So maybe there is a chance the police will take an interest here.

https://goodlawproject.org/news/new-met-police-likely-unlawful/

Andy_L

[Deleted User] said:

jimi_man said:

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

Have you not been paying attention to the news?

The Met have said that they are not investigating the various Tory xmas parties that happened last year. Their stated reason is that they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past. Make of that what you will, but that statement seems pretty clear. If the COVID rule breaking is not on-going they aren't interested.

Your local police force may take a different attitude to the Met, who knows.

"In line with the Met’s policy, officers do not normally investigate breaches of Coronavirus Regulations when they are reported long after they are said to have taken place."

 https://news.met.police.uk/news/allegations-of-gatherings-in-november-and-december-2020-439645

jimi_man

[Deleted User] said:

jimi_man said:

[Deleted User] said:

While it is a police matter, apparently the police don't investigate crimes that have already happened, especially when it comes to COVID. So it may already be too late to report it.

I presume you are referring to something specific and/or you're being tongue in cheek, but just for the avoidance of doubt in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is absolute rubbish. 

Have you not been paying attention to the news?

The Met have said that they are not investigating the various Tory xmas parties that happened last year. Their stated reason is that they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past. Make of that what you will, but that statement seems pretty clear. If the COVID rule breaking is not on-going they aren't interested.

Your local police force may take a different attitude to the Met, who knows.

No they didn't say that at all. What they said was that they don't normally investigate Covid breaches where they are reported a long time after the event. They certainly didn't say that 'they do not investigate crimes that happened in the past' and clearly it would be quite ridiculous if that was the case.

The policy with Covid breaches has always been engage, explain, encourage and then enforce if no other option is available. For stuff that happened a year ago, there is little point in conducting an investigation into something that isn't a serious offence and where the penalty is likely to be small and it would be disproportionate to do so. Especially when the reason for the investigation is nothing but political point scoring, and the Met - quite rightly - don't want to be dragged into that.

As for suing the Met for not investigating something, generally this is not possible to do (the ramifications mean that millions of people could then put in claims for failing to investigate other stuff and they'd be overwhelmed) and therefore the courts won't accept this. But I'm sure that there will be some solicitors happy to take a fee to try it in court. Lawyers always win in the end.