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SERCO has confirmed reports that many of its test-and-trace staff are on precarious “super-spreader contracts,” campaigners revealed yesterday.
In response to an enquiry by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the contractor admitted that many of its workers on the Covid-19 contact-tracing scheme are on temporary contracts with no right to company sick pay.
Fellow test-and-trace contractor G4S made a similar admission earlier this month after an enquiry by Labour MP Emily Thornberry.
The workers would therefore be expected to live on statutory sick pay, just £95.85 per week, if they fall ill.
Stuart Jordan from the Safe & Equal Campaign, which is calling for full sick and isolation pay for all workers, said it leaves staff “in an impossible situation: either isolate and face severe financial hardship or go to work and potentially infect others.”
Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft said: “Those who do not have access to occupational sick pay and can’t work from home should be eligible for the £500 test-and-trace support payment.
“[Chancellor] Rishi Sunak needs to fix this urgently.”
