'Cultural shift on working sick needed' says East Riding health boss
Andy Kingdom says pandemic should put an end to people thinking they ought to toughen up and go into work if ill
A cultural shift is needed on people going into work unwell and support for them to go off should be stepped up, East Riding Council’s public health lead has said.
East Riding Council’s Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said the coronavirus pandemic should put an end to people thinking they ought to toughen up and go into work if ill.
But he added a shift would put some workers in a tough position as some cannot work from home and because of differing rates of sick pay in different sectors.
The director’s comments come after £500 support payments for people self-isolating after testing positive for coronavirus ended on Thursday, February 24.
Workers who had to isolate before then can claim the payments up until Wednesday, April 6.
Mr Kingdom said a national conversation should be had about attitudes towards going into the office while ill.
He added it was in businesses’ interests as much as their workers and would lead to healthier practices as the coronavirus pandemic recedes.
The director said: “The way we approach this issue as tough, I think it needs a cultural shift.
“In Germany for example, even before the pandemic not going into work when ill was seen as a positive thing, you’re colleagues wouldn’t approve if you went in with the flu.
“Here I think a lot of people had the attitude that they should just toughen up and do it.
“So I think it would be much better if we were more considerate, especially now because there’s vulnerable people in workplaces.
“It’s not as though there isn’t any support at all to do it anymore, there’s still statutory sick pay but the issue for some, particularly those who do manual work is that they can’t just work from home.
“We need to look at the way workplaces operate when it comes to health and also at more healthy the work-life balance and what people accept in their jobs.
“Employers and businesses want a healthy workforce, both physically and mentally.
“Frankly I imagine after going through the pandemic if someone went to work and one of their colleagues walked in coughing they’d probably start thinking about getting another job.
“If infections get taken into work places there’s consequences.
“At the moment we’re nowhere back to what things were like before the pandemic, we still shouldn’t accept illnesses of any kind being brought into workplaces.
“We need to have a national conversation about our physical, mental and social health standards.
“That will inevitably be a big conversation, because it touches on what we behaviour we should accept from one another and on things like the level of statutory sick pay, which is low.
“Part of our role as public health officials is to push for better health and safety standards in workplaces to protect people there.
“If workers are looking over their shoulder all the time because they’re worried about health standards then that’s not good for them or those they work for.”