An ACAS commissioned YouGov poll of senior decision makers in a representative sample of British businesses has shown that a quarter (25 per cent) of employers have not been providing staff with paid time off in order to get vaccinated and have no plans to allow this.
However, Susan Clews, Acas Chief Executive added that it was in businesses best interests to have a vaccine policy that supports staff to take time off. She argued this ultimately reduces the lengthy amount of time it will take for staff members to recover from COVID-19.
As such, ACAS ultimately advised employers to consider paid time off for vaccination appointments as well as paying staff their usual rate of pay if they are off sick with vaccine side effects.
It further added that bosses should consider not counting vaccine-related time off sick as part of an absence record system.
The poll found that 6 out of 10 (59%) have been giving staff paid time off, 4% have not been doing it but plan to in the future and 18% did not know.
Employers may find it useful to talk with their staff about the vaccine and share the benefits of being vaccinated. It could help to discuss things like the government’s latest vaccine health information, when staff might be offered the vaccine, whether the employer plans to collect data on staff vaccinations, and if so, how this will follow data protection law (UK GDPR) and whether anyone needs to be vaccinated to be able to do their job.
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