Q If an employee has flu symptoms, or has been in contact with someone with swine flu, can he or she be instructed not to come to work?
Employers are under a duty to ensure the health and safety of all their employees and to provide a safe place and system of work. These duties exist under both the common law and statute. Employees are also under a duty to take reasonable care to ensure that they do not endanger themselves or anyone who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work.
In light of the above duties, and the serious implications for its business if swine flu is contracted and spread in the workplace, an employer would be justified in instructing an employee with swine flu symptoms not to attend work, and to seek a diagnosis from a medical professional and not return to work until the symptoms have cleared.
In relation to an employee who does not have swine flu, but who has been in contact with an infected person, Cabinet Office advice is that it is not necessary on risk grounds to ask such people not to attend work. However, it is open to the employer to agree with the employee that he or she will work from home or return to work only if he or she does not develop symptoms during the incubation period. The incubation period (the time between contact with the virus and the onset of symptoms) is between one and four days.
All this week, Personnel Today will be bringing you highlights from XpertHR’s frequently asked questions.
Other questions answered today include:
Q Is there any duty on employers to close their workplace during the swine flu pandemic to prevent the spread of the virus?
Q If, in order to prevent the spread of swine flu, an employer instructs its employees not to come to work, does it have to pay the employees in full?
Topics later this week, include:
- sicknotes
- testing for the virus
- swine flu and public transport
- childcare
- sick pay
- covering for absence.
Read the next day’s swine flu question of the day.
