Wilko apologized after telling staff who tested positive for Covid to come to work

The Wilko chain of stores apologized and returned after telling staff in the UK to come and work in the stores even if they tested positive for Covid.

As of March 1, the guidelines announced to employees say: ‘If you are positive about Covid and you feel good, you can continue to work. If you feel very bad, you can apply the absence policy.’

The policy sparked sudden outrage as unions denounced the “reckless” measure, putting workers at risk of spreading the disease to colleagues and customers.

In response, Wilko CEO Jerome Saint-Marc said: “There was some miscommunication in our Covid-19 policy” and “If we get something wrong, we raise our hand, accept it and work to rectify the situation.”

He continued with an apparent comeback: “Our advice to team members with Covid symptoms” [or] The positive test is that although they are no longer legally required to isolate themselves, they still need to stay at home and avoid contact with others.’

Wilko has around 400 stores and more than 16,000 employees in the UK.

The government has lifted the legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive in the UK on February 24 as part of its ‘Living with Covid’ scheme.

But since the rule changed, Covid infections and hospitalizations have risen again, with 444,201 new Covid cases detected in the UK in seven days through 14 March, a 48% increase from the previous week.

Wilko’s starting position was a prime example of a large company using the end of law-imposed self-isolation to encourage employees to go to work if they were positive for Covid.

Wilko CEO Jerome Saint-Marc later announced a rollback for the measure

Last month, business partner at Kingsley Napley, Richard Fox, said employers should prevent coworkers from coming into the office when they are positive, to protect not only other employees but themselves from potential legal action.

“Employers are responsible for the health and safety of all their employees and if they want someone in, they can be held accountable if they or other staff members suffer,” he told MailOnline.

Wilko stores in Wales and Scotland used different guidelines than openings in the UK, where self-isolation rules remain in place and employees are told to quarantine for at least five days after developing Covid symptoms and until they see two adverse side streams. got the test results.

Dan Shears, director of health and safety at GMB, the union that represents Wilko’s staff, criticizes Wilko’s official policy, saying, “There is a gap between his letter and the spirit of the law. Just because going to work is legal doesn’t mean it’s wise.

Wilko said he offered sick pay to sick staff.

The UK has recorded another 170,985 new cases of Covid in the past three days as the resurgence of the epidemic in the country continues to grow.

Government statistics showed that the total number of infections on Saturday, Sunday and Monday was 35 percent higher than in the same three-day period last week.

Today’s data, which points to increased infections for almost two weeks, also excludes numbers from Scotland due to a glitch in the data record.

As part of No10’s “living with Covid” strategy, authorities have begun phasing out daily reports and no longer publish weekend figures. This means it’s published every Monday for a total of three days.

Another 135 deaths from Covid were recorded over the weekend, up from 139 last week. Deaths are a few weeks behind the cases, so any fluctuation due to the recent increase in the number of cases is not expected for a while.

Medical records in the UK have not been updated in the latest data, but hospitalizations across the country have increased in recent weeks.

However, updated data were available for the UK, with 1,368 new Covid records registered as of 12 March. In addition, the total number of Covid patients hospitalized in the UK exceeded 10,000 for the first time since mid-February.

Despite the rise in numbers, Health Minister Sajid Javid insisted that the increase in the number of cases should always be expected after the latest restrictions on the pandemic are eased in the UK.