Those who are unvaccinated and have to go into quarantine do not get paid at Ikea

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Ikea in the UK is changing its pay policy.
Unvaccinated employees are affected
In Switzerland, however, things are different.

Unvaccinated employees who have to isolate themselves because they are infected with the coronavirus will receive lower wages at Ikea in the UK in the future. As BBC reports, due to the massive omicron wave, the Swedish furniture giant decided to change its policy with unvaccinated staff and cut their sick pay.

On Sunday alone, more than 141,000 lab-confirmed cases were announced in the United Kingdom. More and more companies are sounding the alarm because they are increasingly short of staff due to the large number of infection cases. A large proportion of the 10,000 employees at Ikea are also currently absent.

Unvaccinated in England must be isolated in case of close contact

It is an “emotional issue,” Ikea admits in a media release. Nevertheless, the rules are clear: “Fully vaccinated employees or those with extenuating circumstances will be paid in full for self-isolations.”

In contrast, “Unvaccinated workers who had to self-isolate could now get just £96.35 (equivalent to around 120 francs) a week at Ikea – the minimum legal number of patients.” In England, people who are fully vaccinated do not have to isolate themselves if they have been in close contact with someone infected with Covid. Unvaccinated people contacted through the government’s testing and tracing system must still quarantine themselves.

No pay cut at Ikea Switzerland

In Switzerland, the situation is quite different, press spokeswoman Dominique Lohm tells 20 Minuten. Such measures as those of the British are not planned. Although Ikea Switzerland is also affected by the omicron wave, daily business can still be “managed well,” Lohm says.

“We are already feeling a slight increase in staff absences compared to the weeks before Christmas,” Lohm says. However, he says Ikea Switzerland has strictly adhered to the federal government’s measures from the start. “And even tightened up a bit,” the press spokeswoman assures.

The outages were evenly distributed throughout Switzerland, she said, and the numbers “change from day to day.” The spokeswoman cannot say how many of the employees have been vaccinated: “We’ve never asked our employees about it.”