Morrisons becomes first UK supermarket to cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff

They are not the first company to implement this policy

Morrisons has announced that it will no longer provide the full rate of sick pay to unvaccinated workers who have to self-isolate. Unvaccinated Morrisons staff who are told to isolate as a contact of someone with covid-19 but test negative themselves will now only get the statutory sick pay (SSP) of £96.35 a week. Under their new policy, only unvaccinated workers who test positive will receive sick pay; those who are double-jabbed and therefore do not have to isolate as a contact will also receive the usual £10 hourly rate from the company while off sick.

These new rules do not apply to those who cannot receive the vaccine or who are not yet full-jabbed on medical grounds and the supermarket insists that it will judge each individual's sick pay on a case-by-case basis. The decision, first discussed back in September, was confirmed by chief executive Dave Potts, who said that this move was taken in the hope that it would encourage more staff to take up the vaccine. Back then, Potts said the supermarket chain was racking up "biblical costs" as the thousands upon thousands of essential key workers were falling ill with coronavirus or having to isolate as per NHS Test and Trace guidance. They are not the only company to have implemented this policy either, as just last week it was announced that IKEA is cutting suck pay for their unvaccinated employees also. They also join the likes of Next and food delivery service Ocado, who assured they will also continue to dish out full sick pay to unvaccinated workers who actually test positive for the virus.