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Where to call

Should an employee have flu like symptoms and are concerned that they may have swine flu, NHS advice is as follows:

Stay at home and check your condition with the National Pandemic Flu Service. The National Pandemic Flu Service is a self-care service that will assess symptoms and provide an authorisation number which can be used to collect antiviral medication:

Telephone: 0800 1 513 100

Minicom: 0800 1 513 200

When to seek GP advice

The NHS advises the following people to call their GP directly:

Those with a serious underlying condition

Pregnant employees

Those with a sick child under one year old

Those whose condition suddenly gets much worse

Those whose condition is still getting worse after seven days (or five days for a child)

Best Practice Tips for Employers

Provide sanitary wipes, anti-bacterial hand wash and alcohol gels for hands, phones, doorknobs, PCs etc.

Identify key employees and assess if and how their absence could be resourced internally.

If a shortage of people to carry out important roles becomes an issue, ensure resources are in place to sufficiently train staff to step into their shoes in the interim.

Consider allowing home working and giving employees remote access as this will reduce the risks of cross infection within the office should an outbreak occur.

Encourage employees to seek medical advice and consider the use of medical suspension. Any medical suspension will be paid according to the employees normal contractual remuneration.

Sickness absence and paying employees for sickness absence

If you have to send an employee home, advise them to contact their GP or the helpline in accordance with the above guidance and explain that they will be paid in line with normal sickness rules. Please note, you are legally required to pay full pay for any period of suspension on medical grounds.

If an employee is sent home by you for fear they may contract swine flu from a diagnosed partner, you are in effect medically suspending them and it is arguable that the employee should be paid full pay.

Dependant Care

Some employees may need to take time off from work to care for children or elderly relatives who have contracted swine flu and whom are dependant upon them for care. Normally, one or two days absence would be determined to be emergency time off and would be unpaid.

However, an employee requiring further time off for these purposes should be asked to take paid annual leave or you can agree further unpaid leave.

Please note that the information contained in this note is not medical advice and medical advice should be sought in the event of suspected swine flu.

For employment law advice on how to deal with employees affected by swine flu, please contact your employment law adviser at Ellis Whittam.