Just an update with regard to another chat with my Union Rep this morning.
As Dr John Campbell would say in his videos - The bottom line is I am going to have to risk it at work. If you want to keep watching the video you can - or in this case continue reading the rest of the post!!!
All Unions are going by this. The government has set out guidelines, and whether you agree with them or not, that's the way it is basically, and all workplaces including schools, go by these guidelines.
The guidelines are that all staff can return to the workplace if it is Covid Secure/Safe, whatever word you want to use. Again some of us will argue that no place can be made Covid safe, but again that's the way it is.
I can ask for an Individual Risk Assessment but as long as the school has done what the Government guidelines say then that's good enough.
If I feel that those guidelines will not protect me enough then it is entirely up to me if I stay or leave but a voluntary handing in of notice declaring I don't feel safe will more than likely not cut it with the decision makers at the DWP so you would be likely sanctioned re Universal Credit and therefore worst case scenario not be able to claim for six months I think.
Even if you were to be able to claim you have to be actively looking for work to receive benefits and therefore you would have to apply for any old job which may have less safety procedures in place than the place you have just left, if indeed you can get another job,. Out of the frying pan into the fire is probably the best description here!
Then a further whammy down the road will be that even if you were to survive, until say a vaccine is in place, you still have to go and find another job, and resignations do not look particularly good on applications!
Sick pay is a pittance, even if you were to qualify for it, and that would require being signed off by a GP who themselves are going by Government guidelines. Even if you managed to get signed off long term with stress for instance, again that doesn't look good on future applications.
Soooo, my options are to stick with it and risk it, or quit and gamble with any UC claim being read by a sympathetic DWP assessor!
What choice!!