Two weeks holiday abroad will cost you four weeks annual leave.

[Woody Guthrie]

I have an employee who has recently travelled abroad, after the initial lockdown period. Do they need to self-isolate on return to the UK? How should this absence be recorded on PSP?


The Government continues to advise against all but essential international travel. From 8 June 2020, the Government are introducing new rules requiring people entering the UK to self-isolate for 14 days on their return. The employee’s absence during this self-isolation period should be covered by taking additional annual holiday, unpaid other time off or where possible, working from home.
If they do not have any coronavirus symptoms after the 14 days, they can stop self-isolating and return to work.

[postslippete]

What about those on furlough? They could decide to spend 2 weeks abroad and then stay at home for the following 2 weeks, all on pay. Then if they have accrued any annual leave weeks whilst they have been furloughed,they could also quite possibly get those weeks credited back as well!

The governments furloughed scheme is one of the most generous I've ever heard of. The government are paying people to try and keep their jobs whilst encouraging them to stay at home. Is it working though?? National Holidays have gone into admin and airlines have made staff redundant. To make matters worse most of these people are going down to the beaches,DIY stores and beauty spots in their thousands potentially spreading the disease anyway! How mad can it get??

[Cucumber]

Imagine if you have a fully paid up foreign holiday/wedding in a few months time.
If things improve you may be allowed to visit that country but you may have to isolate for 2 weeks once you return.
You are already out a few thousand £ and it may transpire it will cost you 2 weeks unpaid leave on return - IF you are granted it.
Holiday company saying there is nothing to stop you travelling, work says you aren't getting 4 weeks off - unpaid or not.
The only people going abroad this year, if granted entry to another country, are retired people and the self employed.

[afcdibby]

Anyone travelling against FCO advice would be an idiot with no valid travel insurance. Most furloughed people have been on 'holiday' since this started from what I'm seeing daily. But, just remember, we're all in this together...……….apart from the ones that aren't.

[sorefeet17]

I think this 2 weeks isolation thing was brought in more for non-UK residents entering the country, when UK residents are able to go away on holiday I would expect it to be scrapped.
But it does show the numpties in charge of this country haven't got a clue, why didn't they have this in place in March or now even! not 2 weeks into June, and has anyone got any faith that authorities will actually even try or be able to enforce this?
And seeing as most of Europe at least has better control of this than us, why bother you will be safer abroad.

[rambo1]

What about those on furlough? They could decide to spend 2 weeks abroad and then stay at home for the following 2 weeks, all on pay. Then if they have accrued any annual leave weeks whilst they have been furloughed,they could also quite possibly get those weeks credited back as well!

The governments furloughed scheme is one of the most generous I've ever heard of. The government are paying people to try and keep their jobs whilst encouraging them to stay at home. Is it working though?? National Holidays have gone into admin and airlines have made staff redundant. To make matters worse most of these people are going down to the beaches,DIY stores and beauty spots in their thousands potentially spreading the disease anyway! How mad can it get??

And then many of them will find when the scheme comes to an end, they will actually have no job to go back to. And who's gonna pay for it all, the good old taxpayer, you know, the one's that have ACTUALLY been working through it all. Tax rises on the way, pension freezes and extensions to state pension age are inevitable and necessary now. The last figures I saw, 82% of deaths so far are vulnerable and over 70. Was it worth it ? Will be a question asked for many many years to come. Wonder if the figures of the people whos lives were cut short because of the measures taked, but unrelated to cv19 ,will ever be made public knowledge?

[rambo1]

Imagine if you have a fully paid up foreign holiday/wedding in a few months time.
If things improve you may be allowed to visit that country but you may have to isolate for 2 weeks once you return.
You are already out a few thousand £ and it may transpire it will cost you 2 weeks unpaid leave on return - IF you are granted it.
Holiday company saying there is nothing to stop you travelling, work says you aren't getting 4 weeks off - unpaid or not.
The only people going abroad this year, if granted entry to another country, are retired people and the self employed.

Is there not a loophole whereby you ring in with 'symptoms' upon getting back from hols therefore work have to give you the time off to isolate? Anyone thought of this and if it would work?

[A2B]

Basically nobody has any answers until the government give the OK to fly and then you have to deal with any restrictions your destination country has in place. You can be sure the airlines won't give cash refunds if you or they are unable to fly. I won't be booking any holidays abroad until a lot of things are cleared up.

[postslippete]

Is there not a loophole whereby you ring in with 'symptoms' upon getting back from hols therefore work have to give you the time off to isolate? Anyone thought of this and if it would work?

Can't see our bosses accepting that. They will probably want evidence of your symptoms either via a positive test or from this new app. I don't think many businesses will carry on accepting staff saying that they are showing symptoms as laid out by a website. They will want some form of proof.

[postslippete]

And then many of them will find when the scheme comes to an end, they will actually have no job to go back to. And who's gonna pay for it all, the good old taxpayer, you know, the one's that have ACTUALLY been working through it all. Tax rises on the way, pension freezes and extensions to state pension age are inevitable and necessary now. The last figures I saw, 82% of deaths so far are vulnerable and over 70. Was it worth it ? Will be a question asked for many many years to come. Wonder if the figures of the people whos lives were cut short because of the measures taked, but unrelated to cv19 ,will ever be made public knowledge?

I completely agree. Wouldn't it have just been easier to furlough and shield the most vulnerable??

[afcdibby]

Basically nobody has any answers until the government give the OK to fly and then you have to deal with any restrictions your destination country has in place. You can be sure the airlines won't give cash refunds if you or they are unable to fly. I won't be booking any holidays abroad until a lot of things are cleared up.

Wrong!!! I had a holiday booked with Jet2 at Easter, repaid in cash in full. I was due to fly tomorrow to Turkey booked through sunshine and I've had the hotel and transfer paid in cash, just waiting for the airline to refund. The airline was Easyjet and the refund in cash is expected sometime next Month.

[A2B]

Basically nobody has any answers until the government give the OK to fly and then you have to deal with any restrictions your destination country has in place. You can be sure the airlines won't give cash refunds if you or they are unable to fly. I won't be booking any holidays abroad until a lot of things are cleared up.

Wrong!!! I had a holiday booked with Jet2 at Easter, repaid in cash in full. I was due to fly tomorrow to Turkey booked through sunshine and I've had the hotel and transfer paid in cash, just waiting for the airline to refund. The airline was Easyjet and the refund in cash is expected sometime next Month.

I was talking about new bookings but didn't make that clear, they have been caught out once and that won't happen again. Check the terms and conditions very carefully on any future bookings.

[DGH]

I completely agree. Wouldn't it have just been easier to furlough and shield the most vulnerable??

'Herd immunity' it was called. It was the original plan. The gov't baulked at the projected quarter of a million deaths and certain overwhelming of NHS capacity.

[Woody Guthrie]

Was it worth it ? Will be a question asked for many many years to come.

Why didn't we lockdown harder and faster is a more pertinent question.
Was it worth it is a dumb question that presumes there was an option.
Letting the virus run wild would not only have resulted in many more deaths it would also have caused massive economic damage, many of the population would have had to go into their own self imposed lockdown to save their lives, businesses would have closed, the NHS and welfare system would have collapsed and people would have died of many other things than Covid-19.

People are wrongly thinking that it wasn't so bad but that was because most of the sane world was locked down.

Sweden tried and failed a slightly lighter lockdown with a population density of 25/sqkm which is basically a form of natural social distancing, how would we have done with a density more than 10 times that?

[clashcityrocker]

'Herd immunity' it was called. It was the original plan.

In the absence of a vaccine some would argue that it is still the plan and the only plan.
The easing of restrictions now might simply be to ensure the second spike comes before the winter when the NHS is stretched anyway.