A high proportion of estate agents have been adversely affected by recent staff absences due to Covid isolation, according to a new survey.
Some 319 readers responded to a Property Industry Eye poll yesterday which sought to find out what impact Omicron, the latest Covid-19 variant of concern, is having on the estate agency industry.
More than half of respondents said that Covid related staff absences is now having a negative impact on their estate agency business.
Are absences due to Covid related self-isolation an issue for your business?
The snapshot poll, launched following Ikea’s decision this week to cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff who need to self-isolate, found, somewhat surprisingly, that almost 60% of those surveyed think estate agents should follow suit.
At Ikea unvaccinated workers who are required to isolate could now receive as little as £96.35 a week – the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) minimum.
Do you think estate agencies should cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff who have to self-isolate?
Those in favour of seeing sick pay scrapped for unvaccinated staff who have to self-isolate include existing employees.
There was a good even split between employees and employers taking part in the survey.
Are you an estate agency employee, or employer?
Interestingly, more than half of agents remain comfortable with the idea of working alongside unvaccinated colleagues.
Some 54% of agents surveyed are happy to work in the same office as someone who has opted against being vaccinated against Covid-19. This remains almost unchanged from the 55% who offered the same view in a separate EYE poll conducted in May 2021.
Are you comfortable working in the same office as someone who refuses the Covid-19 vaccine?
The coronavirus vaccine has been a polarising topic almost since the day the public started lining up for their first jabs, and yesterday’s comments in response to the poll proves that this remains a highly emotive issue.
You can view yesterday’s comments by clicking here.
Rather Orwellian
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It must be remembered that you cannot reduce Statutory Sick Pay, so this only applies to contractual sick pay, and most of the many agencies that we advise do not offer contractual sick pay to their staff so reducing sick pay to those that are unvaccinated would not apply.
Iain Lock
Q&A HR
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Interesting that the other thread has been locked, probably due to a certain poster talking over everyone because they clearly know better. Not quite sure where these other ‘facts’ are coming from, but according to the BMJ: “The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), which has been monitoring activity throughout the pandemic, provides information on admissions to intensive care.3 Its latest report, published on 31 December, showed that the proportion of patients admitted to critical care in December 2021 with confirmed covid-19 who were unvaccinated was 61%.”
I agree in free choice and will (although, to be honest I think you’re a bit of an idiot if you think it’s a worldwide conspiracy to vaccinate us with a vaccine that kills us all), but with the hundreds of millions of people vaccinated against the cases, like every medicine where some have bad reactions to it, are small in comparison.
I think the generation of “anti-vaxers” just show how selfish the world has become. Try thinking about others for once.
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“the other thread has been locked, probably due to a certain poster talking over everyone because they clearly know better.”
EYE now only allow an article to remain open for comment for 48 hours, Quags – one of several reasons why the comment count has dropped through the floor.
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