IKEA docks sick pay for unvaccinated staff

Whatever IKEA’s reason, slashing sick pay for unvaccinated workers (for a virus they don’t even have) remains a discriminatory, detestable, and tyrannical method of ensuring vaccine compliance.

The furniture retail giant IKEA has cut sick pay for its unvaccinated staff who are forced into self-isolation due to being in close contact with someone, somewhere who has tested positive for Covid. Unjabbed staff will only receive statutory sick pay, totalling £96.35 per week, at a time when the papers are flooded with articles on the cost-of-living crisis, whereas fully vaccinated staff will continue to receive their usual wage.

What is concerning about this case study is that there was no law typed up in Parliament or decree from Whitehall mandating that IKEA enact this – the firm has introduced this policy on its own volition. Instead of the Government forging this medical apartheid, as it plans to do with the NHS, the private sector is essentially beginning to sing from the same hymn sheet.

Nevertheless, both private business and the halls of power seem to be playing off against each other. Government guidance still stipulates that unvaccinated members of the public must still self-isolate for ten days following exposure to the virus, whereas the jabbed can get by through producing negative tests for a few days. So, it can appear that IKEA are doing this to dodge the impact that this advice may bring, such as staff shortages.

Whatever IKEA’s reason, slashing sick pay for unvaccinated workers (for a virus they don’t even have) remains a discriminatory, detestable, and tyrannical method of ensuring vaccine compliance.