Furniture retailer Ikea has announced that it intends to cut sick pay for any staff who remain unvaccinated and need to self isolate if they test positive or come into contact with someone who tests positive for COVID.
The Daily Mail reports that the Swedish company, which employs some 10,000 people in the UK alone intends to slash sick pay to the legal minimum of just £93.35 per week for anyone who is unvaccinated.
That would mean a cut of more than a three quarters of the company’s usual wages for workers.
“Unvaccinated co-workers without mitigating circumstances who have been identified as close contacts of a positive case will be paid statutory sick pay,” an Ikea spokesperson told reporters.
“We appreciate that this is an emotive topic and all circumstances will be considered on a case by case basis, therefore anyone in doubt or concerned about their situation is encouraged to speak to their manager,” the spokesperson added.
The company announced that the policy will only apply to unvaccinated workers with “high levels of absence.”
The company claims that the move is prompted by recent staff shortages owing to many having to isolate.
“Following the vaccine rollout and changes in the government’s isolation requirements, our approach to COVID-related absences evolved from September 20, 2021—an approach developed with our social partners and national co-worker committee,” the company further declared.
Ikea also recently offered workers paid leave to go and get vaccinated.
As we noted yesterday, oncology professor Angus Dalgleish of St George’s Hospital, University of London has warned that British people have become obsessed with taking lateral flow COVID tests and that “it is tantamount to national self-harm,” because it is causing millions to miss work and isolate even though they have no symptoms.
“Hospitals, transport networks, our postal and rubbish collection services and hundreds of thousands of British businesses are now being crippled because of a mania over checking people for an infection that they may have no symptoms for,” Dalgleish urges.
Noting that the Omicron variant is very mild, but very ‘rampant’ with isolation doing little to combat its spread, the professor further describes self imposed lockdowns as “insanity.”
