WFM UK: SSP and COVID19 Returning from Holiday

Many Employers have encouraged employees to take annual leave, with some employees opting to travel abroad.

With the Government’s recent decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on travellers arriving into the UK from Spain, it is important that Employers understand the Covid-19 SSP legislation to ensure that they are compliant.

An Employee who has returned from a country that is not on the UK’s ‘no self-isolation requirements’ list must go into quarantine for 14 days. Although this is referred to as self-isolation, it differs from the ‘self-isolation’ rules that are applied to COVID-19 self-isolation in terms of SSP.

Employees who have to self-isolate after returning from holiday or a business trip are not entitled to SSP if they cannot work from home.

If employees can work from home, they can be paid normally.

An Employer can ask the employee to take additional holiday to cover the period so that the employee receives pay. Alternatively, the employee can be placed on unpaid leave.

Employers can choose to pay SSP to employees, however, there is no obligation to do so.