The furniture giant Ikea has cut sick pay for unvaccinated UK staff who are forced to self-isolate due to exposure to COVID-19.
Other major firms have stated that they plan to implement similar policies. This could potentially affect up to 5 million people in the UK who are currently unvaccinated, with vaccine hesitancy particularly high in some ethnic minority groups.
Speaking to Retail Gazette, Simon Whitehead, Head of our Recruitment and Workforce Solutions sector, suggested that the policy may be counter-productive for employers:
“In a candidate-short job market, employees may choose to vote with their feet which would exacerbate already challenging conditions as retailers continue to be squeezed by price rises and supply chain disruption.
“The policy may well discourage unvaccinated employees from testing and self-isolating which will have a knock-on effect on infection among its vaccinated employees.
“Equally, [Ikea] runs the risk of claims from disgruntled employees if its plan to adopt discretion on a case-by-case basis is not applied with consistency – particularly in relation to those who have not been vaccinated due to a protected characteristic.”
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