Know your rights!
re: industrial action over COVID-19
While workers in other countries have struck over this, you shouldn't need to in most cases. You can take action under Health & Safety law without a ballot or giving your employer the right to dock your pay.
re: industrial action over COVID-19
While workers in other countries have struck over this, you shouldn't need to in most cases. You can take action under Health & Safety law without a ballot or giving your employer the right to dock your pay.
Section 7 of the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 (HSAWA 1974): legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37 places a duty on every employee while at work:
a) to take reasonable care for the health and safety of themself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work
a) to take reasonable care for the health and safety of themself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work
Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (known as ERA 1996) legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18 protects the employee (with no qualifying service period) from any ‘detriment’:
d) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which they could not reasonably have been expected to avert, they left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to their place of work
e) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, the took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect themself or other persons from the danger.
The Labour Research Department explain: “As long as the employee forms a genuine view of a risk that they reasonably regard as serious and imminent, the fact that the employer disagrees with the seriousness of the risk or the appropriateness of the steps taken is irrelevant.”
