Coronavirus: Sick pay rules apply, says JD Wetherspoon pub chain

One of the UK’s biggest employers says staff will be subject to regular statutory sick pay rules if they self-isolate owing to coronavirus.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon, which has 45,000 employees, said the virus was being treated like any other illness.

Under statutory sick pay rules, an employee is not paid for the first three days of absence, and then only if they earn at least £118 a week.

Strictly speaking, there is no right to sick pay for anyone in self-isolation.

However, arbitration service Acas said it was “good practice” for employers to treat it as sick leave or agree for the time to be taken as holiday.

Statutory sick pay is worth £94.25 a week for eligible employees who have been off work owing to illness for at least four days in a row. Some employers operate more generous schemes.

JD Wetherspoon is thought to be one of the first major employers to explicitly outline its policy, although it has received some criticism from wage campaigners on social media.