Some carers working for Bristol City Council can face sanctions and the threat of dismissal for self-isolating with coronavirus. Trade union representatives have now raised concerns that the council’s sickness absence policy is unfair and needs changing to protect care staff.
Reablement staff visit people at their homes to provide personal care, to help people recover from injuries, hospital stays or illness. But if they catch Covid-19 and are forced to stay at home, they could face disciplinary procedures for taking too many days off sick.
Concerns about the punitive sickness policy were raised at the human resources committee on Thursday, February 16. Human resources bosses did not comment on the policy during the meeting, but appeared to agree the concerns needed to be urgently looked at.
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Jeff Sutton, secretary of Avon and Wessex GMB branch, said: “Staff have direct contact with members of the public, particularly when they’re providing personal care. With [national] Covid rules now, if you feel well but you’ve got Covid, you can go to work.
“But these staff can’t go to work — and they’ve been told by their managers, if you’ve got Covid you have to have five days off, and if it continues you have to take 10 days off. Those five or 10 days count towards their sickness absence and if they hit a trigger point, then there’s a sanction.”
According to Mr Sutton, reablement staff can face sanctions if they take at least six days off or three instances in three months; or if they take at least 12 days off or six instances in a year. Sanctions include a formal warning, and escalate through three disciplinary stages to possible dismissal. Council managers can use discretion, “but not many do”, Mr Sutton said.
