25% employers are not paying staff for their time to get, or recover from, their Covid vaccination

Acas have published a survey regarding employers’ approach to staff Covid vaccinations.  Acas’ advice is that employers should support staff to get the Covid vaccine once it is offered to them including paid time off to do.  In support of its position Acas argues that it is beneficial for businesses to support staff vaccinations as vaccinated workers are less likely to need lengthy periods of time off work to recover from Covid.

However, according to the survey a quarter of employers are acting against this advice and not paying staff for time off to get the jab nor are they giving full company sick pay to staff who are off work sick due to vaccine side effects.

You can see Acas’ full report on the survey here but in summary over 2000 employers were asked if they would give staff paid time off to get the Covid vaccine and:

• 59% said yes
• 4% said no but we plan to do so soon
• 25% said no and we do not plan to
• 12% said they do not know

On paying staff full company sick pay if they are off sick with side effects from the vaccine the employers responded:

• 50% said yes
• 6% said no but we plan to do so soon
• 26% said no and we do not plan to
• 18% said they do not know

This blog was brought to you by Tess Barrett, solicitor at didlaw