@mo53 Thank you. Just hope the thread may help others in the same situation. It's going to be a worry either way. If I stay home I'll worry about money, If I go to work I'll worry about keeping safe so there isn't an easy option. To be honest without trying to sound too dramatic at least staying home I'll be around to worry about money rather than the alternative! One of the added problems is I live alone. If I were to get ill and deteriorate there is only me here to pick up the phone to get an ambulance, but on the other hand a lack of a wage is only going to affect me as I don't have dependents.
Called ACAS as kindly advised by others on here and the options are -
1. SSP
2. My suggestion to my Line Manager that a possible Temporary Part Time Work From Home Contract could be agreed.
3. Furlough - Although in our situation ACAS felt I might need a shielding letter for that which I don't have.
4. Risk going back to work on full pay.
Decisions, decisions!! To be honest I'd be happy with Option 2 but whether they agree that or not is another matter as they are clearly intent on saving money. With that option at least I'd be working to an extent. SSP and Furlough you aren't allowed to work at all. Other than that maybe I could see how they go whilst being on SSP for a month or two. The whole thing may break down as it's only just started and it may come to pass that they realise that they can't keep students and staff safe.
What frustrates me is that despite me being on a four day contract, rather than five for the last few weeks I've been working exactly the same hours from home as everyone else anyway. With the return of the schools partial opening on Monday those working on a rota are working one day in every four so a maximum of two days a week, 10 till 2, so technically I am working a mere 8 hours less than everyone else by not going in and yet they want me to go on SSP!
My Union also rang back and their view is that the employer is wrong and ignoring GP and Governmental advice and said diabetes might be covered by the Employment Act 2010, not sure if anyone knows that for sure? She is going to do a paragraph or two of the Unions stance for me to forward to my Line Manager and said it might be enough to make them rethink. If not the Union themselves will happily contact my employer. I don't really want to start getting bolshy about it but I guess that's what I joined a Union for!!
Max - Having read your post I will make the following observations. In those observations, I am not making judgements, or making any attempt to persuade you to do anything. I am making observation you might consider with a ponder. My post is roughly in the order mentioned in your own post.
1: Your fundamental assumptions
You are making a couple of huge assumptions. Firstly that if you go back to work, you
will contract COVID. That is not a given for anyone. Then you further assume that when you contract COVID, it will be fatal.
In a quick search, I couldn't find anything giving a current estimate of infection rates in the UK (diagnosed or not) in the UK, although at the beginning of this month, there was speculation that c50% of the UK had already experienced the virus.
A few days ago, the Office of National Statistics published the following:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...articles/coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26
Within that piece, the further published the graph illustrated here:
I have no idea whatsoever what age you are, but if I assume you are under 65, you can see the proportion of deaths under and over 65.
I have no idea how well your hypertension is managed, or what your blood glucose is right now, however, your HbA1c figure quoted yesterday as being 58 a couple of months ago isn't dire. OK. It could be better, but at 58, that doesn't in itself trigger additional concerns for the medical profession.
Furlough
Where a business furloughs and employee, the government picks up the tab fr their employment costs, up to 80% of the individual's salary. They also pick up employer's National Insurance and pension contributions. Should an employer choose to pay more than 80%, they must pick up the balance.
The potential spanner in the works is the public sector wasn't expected to utilise that scheme, but the public sector was not excluded from the potential to furlough.
Diabetes and employment discrimination
Type 2 diabetes is not usually covered by The Equality Act, unless the person concerned has complication impacting their day-to-day life, or they are taking certain medications, like insulin. I don't believe either of those scenario apply to you at this time.
In your shoes, I would try to rethink my assumptions on COVID. I don't have hypertension - aside from White Coat (!), but have had a diagnosis of diabetes. My outlook is that I don't want to contract it. I really don't want to contract it, but I cannot live my life waiting for it's knock on my door. Should that knock come, I will be giving it my best fight to get rid of it, as fast as I can. I will not be assuming the grim reaper is awaiting me.
I'd also speak with the head about furlough, and ask for it. He may feel if he has other people living with pre-existing conditions, perhaps he could consider furloughing a number of people at a time, in rotation.
Thereafter, only you can decide what to do, but in this life a positive attitude can have a great impact on quality of life, and also on quantity of life.
Please do not consider that I am trivialising COVID, or those who have been very unwell, or lost their lives. I'm not.
