Quarantine rules pay blow for key workers

HUNDREDS of t housands of employees face having to take unpaid leave or cancel holidays as a result of unprecedented travel restrictions this summer.

Key workers who have kept the nation moving in lockdown are among those at risk of losing money or even facing disciplinary action because of the Government’s controversial quarantine laws.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has found that a host of firms, local authorities and NHS Trusts are telling staff they might not be paid during their two-week isolation if they cannot work from home and have no holiday allowance left. Some bosses are even asking employees where they plan to go, raising the possibility that if foreign travel is unauthorised, they face disciplinary proceedings if they jet off.

It comes after the Government implemented laws forcing travellers returning from overseas to stay at home for 14 days or face a £1,000 fine. The rules mean that anyone taking a simple one-week trip abroad faces three weeks away from work if they cannot fulfil their role at home.

It is speculated that Boris Johnson will announce on June 29 that deals have been put in place for so-called air bridges with a ‘small number’ of countries with low Covid-19 infection rates.

But even if that opens the way to holidays in popular destinations such as France, Spain and Greece, it still leaves travellers to other countries facing quarantine.

Bosses of the 1.3 million-strong NHS workforce were told last week: ‘Overseas travel should not be booked before an employee has agreed the duration of the leave required with their employer to ensure that they can comply with the quarantine measures on their return to the UK.’

The Post Office said it would authorise leave for overseas trips, but if staff could not work from home, ‘they could agree with their line manager to take the 14-day period as either annual leave, unpaid leave or a mixture of the two’. Highstreet chain Boots said ‘colleagues will need to use annual leave to cover any quarantine period’.

Tesco will give sick pay to staff who booked foreign trips before the quarantine regime was announced on May 8. But anyone who asked for time off since then will have to take the quarantine fortnight as annual leave or unpaid.

Rehana Azam, of the GMB union, said: ‘Whatever the circumstances, employees shouldn’t be forced to take 14 days of annual leave.’

From today, Britons will be able to visit Spain without quarantine, it was announced last night, although they will have to stay isolated for 14 days on their return.

But Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya called on the UK to reciprocate.