Bosses SHOULDN’T punish Brits who need time off for quarantine after returning from Spain, Raab says

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BOSSES must not punish Brits who need time off to quarantine after they get back from Spain, Dominic Raab said today.

He stressed that employers shouldn’t punish their employees for following the law and isolating to make sure they aren’t spreading the virus.

People arriving back in the UK from Spain should be treated ‘flexibly’ by their employer, Dominic Raab said

Last night the Government introduced blanket restrictions on people coming back from Spain, saying they must self-isolate for 14 days after a spike in cases.

The Foreign Office has also warned against “all but essential travel” to mainland Spain – though this advice does not cover the Canary Islands or Balearic Islands.

They could face a £1000 fine for breaking the law if they are caught heading outside – and will have to leave an address at the border for where they are isolating.

Mr Raab told Sky’s Sophy Ridge: “Employers, just like employees, have got to follow the law and I don’t think you could be laying people off or taking penalties against people for adhering to the law.

“If someone has followed the law in relation to quarantine and self-isolating in the way that they should, they can’t have penalties taken against them.

“You cannot be penalised in this country lawfully for following the rules and the law that’s in place.

“And obviously we expect employers to respond flexibly and in an understanding way to those who, let’s face it, have enforced on them because of the risk that we’ve seen in Spain, those quarantine rules.”

But ultimately it’s up to individual employers to decide what to do and whether to compensate people for missing work.

People can claim statutory sick pay if they have to self-isolate over Coronavirus, but it’s only £95.85 per week. Some employers may pay more.

However, if people are returning from travelling and have to self-isolate, they can’t claim this.

People already working at home should be able to continue to do so.

Employers may also force them to take more of their holiday to cover the 2-week isolation, or if they don’t have enough left they could be asked to take it unpaid.

Mr Raab said the situation on Spain was assessed on Saturday afternoon “and we took the decision as swiftly as we could.”

“We can’t make apologies for doing so,” he said.

He refused to apologise for the late notice for the decision, but accepted it was “disruptive” to people who were due to fly back in the coming days.

Spain has recorded more than 900 new cases for two days running.

But the Government were considering putting Spain on the unsafe list for travel as early as last week, HOAR has revealed.

Labour’s Jon Ashworth blasted the Government for refusing to guarantee full pay for employees.

He told the same programme: “This virus will spread if people are faced with no choice but to go to work.

“If they have to choose between putting food on the table or staying at home and losing their jobs.”

There are fears that Spain could slap a 14-day quarantine on Brit holidaymakers arriving in the country as retaliation over the new restrictions.

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya previously said in a BBC interview that restrictions could be imposed just for Brits.