29 July 2020The Green Book, Part 2, para 9 sets out that:
“An employee who is prevented from attending work because of contact with infectious disease shall be entitled to receive normal pay. The period of absence on this account shall not be reckoned against the employee’s entitlements under this scheme”
This covered situations where the employee was required to self-isolate or placed in quarantine. However, in respect of travel abroad, this was intended to cover where the employee unwittingly found themselves where they needed to self-isolate because the regulations in the UK changed whilst they were out of the country.
The situation now is that employees booking holidays from this point forward, for instance to Spain, will be going abroad fully cognisant of the quarantine requirements on re-entering the UK. Accordingly, employers may assume that an employee who travels abroad in full knowledge of the requirement to self-isolate on their return should be required to take additional leave (paid or unpaid) to cover the 14-day period, unless it is agreed they are able to work from home.
