A major UK supermarket has cut sick pay for its unvaccinated staff.
Morrisons joins other big retailers in the move including the likes of Leicester based Next, as well as Ikea and Ocado.
Now, workers who are unvaccinated by choice rather than medical exemption, will not get full sick pay if they test negative but have to self-isolate, the grocer has confirmed.
As staff absences rise as a result of the Omicron variant, Mirror reported that employees who chose not to take up the Covid jab will get statutory sick pay of £96.35 a week if they are told to isolate but test negative.
However anyone that tests positive will still get full sick pay regardless of their vaccination status, the chain said.
Dave Potts, chief executive for the supermarket first mentioned the policy in a conference call with investors in September, as part of a plan to tackle the "biblical costs" of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Under Morrisons' policy, if NHS Test and Trace informs an unvaccinated worker that they have been exposed to Covid-19, they will only get statutory sick pay (SSP) when they isolate.
SSP is the minimum amount employers must pay but some employers offer more - this is normally known as company or contractual sick pay.
In England, unvaccinated people must isolate for 10 days if they are a close contact of someone with Covid, even if they do not test positive themselves.
Morrisons said its policy only applies to workers who are unvaccinated by choice, and each individual is treated on a case-by-case basis.
Workers who cannot receive Covid vaccines for medical reasons are not obliged to isolate in England.
The requirement for fully-vaccinated workers to isolate when exposed to Covid was dropped in England in August.
The firm is said to pay its staff at least £10 per hour.
Morrisons is the latest UK firm to have tightened its sick pay rules recently.
In the past month, Ikea, Next and Ocado changed their policy on unvaccinated staff who have been exposed to coronavirus. Collectively they employ nearly 60,000 workers.
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