MRM.COM : Coronavirus update : We are continuing to closely monitor the latest up to date coronavirus guidance : Links and discussion

[POSTMAN]

https://www.myroyalmail.com/news/2020/0 ... rus-update" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As the number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in Europe grows, we are continuing to closely monitor the latest up to date guidance.

We take the wellbeing of our employees extremely seriously. To keep our guidance for colleagues up to date and reduce any potential impact on individuals, customers and communities, we are currently monitoring information published by the World Health Organisation and Public Health England.

If there are any changes or updates to how this guidance affects our policy and procedures, we will issue updates via our online channels as well as directly to our Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) business partners.

As with all mail handling and other roles, good hand and personal hygiene should be maintained to minimise the risk of cold and flu infections, which are very common at this time of year. Hands should always be washed before eating and any gloves worn for mail handling should be cleaned frequently.

Disposable gloves can be made available to anyone on request through their line manager and as with our winter health campaigns, are a recommended additional precaution.

As part of good hygiene and ‘housekeeping,’ please remind your teams of the availability of antiseptic wipes for handheld shared items such as PDAs, finger scanners and also multi-use keyboards, ensuring you have an adequate supply of wipes.

Travel advice

The UK Chief Medical Officers are advising anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and is experiencing a cough, fever or shortness of breath, to stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if your symptoms are mild.

If you have returned from the below specific areas since 19 February, you should call NHS 111, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people, even if you do not currently have any symptoms:

• Iran
  Specific lockdown areas in Northern Italy as designated by the Italian government
  Special care zones in South Korea as designated by the government of the Republic of South Korea
  Hubei province (returned in the past 14 days).

If you have returned from the below areas since 19 February and develop symptoms, however mild, you should call NHS 111, stay indoors at home and avoid contact with other people. You do not need to follow this advice if you have no symptoms.

• Northern Italy (defined by a line above, and not including, Pisa, Florence and Rimini)
  Vietnam
  Cambodia
  Laos
  Myanmar.

If you or any of your team members have returned from the affected areas listed above, they should speak to their line manager before returning to work. Based on the latest information from Public Health England our SHE business partners will advise managers accordingly.

If a colleague has attended work after returning from one of the above areas, but has subsequently been advised to self-isolate as a precautionary measure after calling NHS 111, other colleagues in the workplace should continue with business as usual, maintaining good hand and personal hygiene and using antibacterial wipes where necessary. The risk to others remains low, however, should anyone have concerns, they should contact NHS 111.

In the interests of employee health, we strongly recommend that colleagues on personal visits do not travel to China and also review the latest travel advice from Public Health England before any travel likely to take them to designated areas of higher risk.

Please speak to your line manager if you have any questions or concerns.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will act on Public Health England advice, which is updated daily. In the meantime, we will continue to share regular updates and information.

EDIT: To place an order for disposal gloves - order form on intranet - mark the subject as **URGENT**. Power free/Latex free/Rubber free.
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[POSTMAN]

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

ACAS : Coronavirus: advice for employers and employees

[POSTMAN]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51628524" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Will I get paid if I self-isolate?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said Britons returning from quarantined Italian towns must self-isolate, even if they have no symptoms.

In addition, those with flu-like symptoms coming back from areas of Italy north of Pisa should stay at home for 14 days.

Staff from Chevron and Crossrail have also been asked to work from home as a precaution.

Workers who are ill are entitled to statutory sick pay. But the law says if you stay away from work but aren't sick, you may not get paid.

I've been told to self isolate. Will I get paid if I'm not at work?
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has sent guidance to UK employers telling them staff who have been asked to self-isolate are entitled to take the time as sick leave.

Acas, the independent arbitration service agrees and has also published advice for staff and employers

ACAS : Coronavirus: advice for employers and employees

But senior adviser Michele Piertney told the BBC: "If a medical expert says we are putting you into quarantine then you... won't get sick leave as a matter of course."

If you can work from home, you may be able to carry on as normal, says Sarah Evans, employment law partner at JMW Solicitors. But shop and factory workers probably won't have that option.

Acas, says it's "good practice" for your employer to treat it as sick leave or agree for the time to be taken as holiday.

"Otherwise there's a risk the employee will come to work because they want to get paid," it says.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development goes a step further and says "there's also a strong moral responsibility to ensure that employees feel safe and secure in their employment", and that firms should make home working easier and be flexible with time off.

But this is only advice and not the law if it is you who decides to self-isolate, rather than your boss who asks you to.

"There is no statutory right to pay if you aren't sick," says Ms Evans. Although some contracts may be more generous than others.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "People who are prevented from working because of a risk to public health are able to claim universal credit."

She said they may also be entitled to contributory employment and support allowance, which helps with living costs for people who cannot work because of a health condition.

What if I have to care for someone else? Will I be paid then?
If you have a relative who is ill, or your children's school is closed or another situation arises where you must look after them at short notice, your employer must give you time off to do so, says Ms Evans. You probably won't be paid for it, however, unless that's a perk in your contract.

Time off for family and dependants

It extends to other dependants too, including a domestic partner or parent.

Again, if you can do your job from home, this might be a good solution, she says.


I am too ill to work. Will I get paid?
If you are sick, or have symptoms, you qualify for at least statutory sick pay, or whatever your contract may provide over and above that.

Statutory sick pay (SSP) is £94.25 per week and can be paid for up to 28 weeks. It is only paid from the fourth day of sickness. A doctor's note may not be necessary.

"You can self-sign off with symptoms of flu without seeing a doctor," says Ms Evans.

I'm self-employed. What about me?
There's no statutory sick pay for the self-employed. However, if you are a casual or agency worker you should qualify.

For zero-hours workers, the legal ground is less secure, says Citizens Advice. You can ask, but you might not get it: "You can still get sick pay - you should ask your employer for it. If they say no, ask them to explain why."

Most people who earn at least £118 per week before tax should qualify.

I have a history of illness and now I have to be off again. Will I be fired?
While long, frequent absences can get you sacked, workers can take some comfort from the fact that the call to self-isolate is government advice and is designed to stop the spread of disease.

Also, employers have a responsibility to stop their workers from falling ill.

"I don't think we will have many cases at tribunal where people have been sacked because they have followed government advice," says Ms Evans. "I don't think it's something most people should worry about necessarily."

She adds: "I would expect to advise employers to accommodate what they can for as long as they can."

There are, however, no hard and fast rules as to when and whether being fired for illness becomes an unfair dismissal.

"There is no cut-off," says Ms Evans. "It very much depends on the circumstances."

Who do I have to tell and when?
Ms Evans says that "to be on the safe side I'd be communicating with my employer every day".

Not telling your boss why you are off work could breach your contract.

[guardianangel]

Cant see our office having any wipes or gloves they really couldn't give a monkies about us.They should be issued to everyone whether you use it or not.

[Woody Guthrie]

We have someone self isolating.
At the moment they are on full sick pay.
Whether RM will try to change that position I don't know yet but we'll fight it if they do.

The way I'm looking at it if they don't pay they risk the guy turning up at work, then they would have to send him home, if he refuses they would be forced to suspend him (on full pay) so it's a losing position from the business from day one.

Hopefully that basic position will get through to management.

[Marshamp11]

Even in self isolation RM will still be phoning you up everyday to try and get you to return to work.

[baldrick]

If someone self isolates will that period be added to their sickness absence record and count towards a stage?

[HTPostman]

Not to scaremonger but some papers are suggesting if it becomes an epidemic public transport will stop, schools close and workers asked to work from home if possible.

All hypothetical but I wonder where we stand on all this...will RM shut down for a while - after all, we only deliver ‘junk’ according to some and I’ve seen many commenting on those same newspaper sites saying when the job ends we won’t be missed etc.

Or would we be the knights in shining armour, delivering government information to those without internet/cut off, delivering medical supplies, food etc?

[SpacePhoenix]

Not to scaremonger but some papers are suggesting if it becomes an epidemic public transport will stop, schools close and workers asked to work from home if possible.

All hypothetical but I wonder where we stand on all this...will RM shut down for a while - after all, we only deliver ‘junk’ according to some and I’ve seen many commenting on those same newspaper sites saying when the job ends we won’t be missed etc.

Or would we be the knights in shining armour, delivering government information to those without internet/cut off, delivering medical supplies, food etc?

Would RM even be allowed to shutdown? Would a full shutdown technically fall foul of the Postal Services Act?

[steve1873]

If someone self isolates will that period be added to their sickness absence record and count towards a stage?

It will. However, if it was me I'd be taking out a grievance if stage was issued citing the failure to take mitigation in to account. There is no right of appeal for a stage 1 or 2, but you can still take out a grievance if you feel you have been treated unfairly.

[Woody Guthrie]

Would RM even be allowed to shutdown? Would a full shutdown technically fall foul of the Postal Services Act?

In the most serious scenario the last thing anyone will be worried about is the postal services act.

Emergency powers will override everything.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

3) Nothing in section 31 is to be read—
(a) as requiring a service to continue without interruption, suspension or
restriction in an emergency,

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/201 ... 005_en.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PostmanBitesDog]

This is interesting:

Data repository for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Visual Dashboard operated by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (JHU CSSE). Also, Supported by ESRI Living Atlas Team and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU APL):

Visual Dashboard (desktop):
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboar ... 7b48e9ecf6

Visual Dashboard (mobile):
http://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard ... 62e5c06e61

[norris9]

How long do you have to work for Royal Mail in order to get sick pay?

[Ren Hoëk]

It looks like this is ramping up now and I'm not hearing anything in the form of guidance from our leadership. All we've had is a box of hand wipes placed in the office.

We will be knocking on doors to potentially sick people who will not give a s**t about ordering something online whilst "quarantining" themselves. We will then have to hand over our PDA's to these people for signatures. Not only will we risk becoming ill so will every other customer we hand that PDA to. We could remain symptom free for 14 days whilst we infect half the town! We will be handling packets handled by god knows who from god knows where. My wife has conditions which means she is immunocompromised.

At what stage will they pull sign for/track products?
At what stage will they pull packets altogether?
At what stage will they stand us down?

Looks like the cats out of the bag.