It’s not just unfair to keep non-essential workplaces open, it’s reckless

It is not just unfair, it’s reckless. The insistence on workplaces to stay open when they are not providing an essential service or product not only exposes workers who have to go into those workplaces to higher risk, but also exposes their families and the wider population as a whole. After continued complaints from workers that they are being forced to work when they shouldn’t, or that their employers are not – or cannot – enforce social distancing in the workplace, it is time for the government to step in with explicit orders to close.

It’s important to note that lots of workplaces across the UK have followed the advice outlined by the government. Many have suspended their operations and sent their employees home, and a lot that need to remain open have introduced strict social distancing measures. Some companies have gone the extra mile and repurposed their operations in innovative ways to help combat coronavirus. Restaurant chains Leon, Wasabi, Abokado and Franco Manca have teamed up to deliver food to NHS workers in our hospitals, for example.

But others have categorically not stepped up, and have deliberately abused the public health guidance. 1,000 staff in JD Sports’s warehouses have contacted Manchester mayor Andy Burnham as they’ve been forced to continue working “side-by-side” so that people can keep ordering trainers. In another example, a cake-making company continues to operate in Scotland – it says that it’s essential as a food producer. Pets at Home tried to argue that all of its staff, including shop assistants in its stores, are key workers and should go to work. There are more and more concerning reports from workers all the time.

And this is crushingly unfair, obviously. When the news came from Boris Johnson that we would be joining other European countries in a lockdown, office-based employees with reasonably remote-friendly work faced having to spend weeks or months stuck at home. But for many, working from home isn’t possible. Their employers have expected them to report to site as usual, putting their families and communities at higher risk – crucially undermining the efforts of them and those around them to protect themselves from infection.

However – it’s more than unfair. It is illogical when considering the health guidance. As experts have repeatedly explained, coronavirus is highly contagious. One intensive care professor took us through the maths on Channel 4’s Dispatches programme. If you have the normal flu, you can expect to infect about 1.3 people. If that 1.3 people pass it on again, and you do that ten times, then you are responsible for about 14 cases of flu. Coronavirus is about three times more infectious, and if you raise three to the power of ten, one person not following social distancing guidelines can be responsible for around 59,000 cases. Now consider that non-essential workplaces are continuing to gather employees in enclosed spaces, sometimes in the hundreds or thousands, only to be sent back out into their communities afterwards.

This simply does not match up with the efforts being made elsewhere in the country and in the workforce to combat the spread and impact of Covid-19. When this crisis began, there were only 1,000 adult intensive care beds in the country. The government is rapidly putting together a huge temporary hospital in east London to deal specifically with coronavirus cases, and a hospital in north west London declared an incident as it ran out of intensive care beds on the same day the PM announced the lockdown. The health service needs all the help it can get – as made clear by the repeated encouragement for people to “stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives”. It’s time the government made its guidance consistent.

This is all about managing risk, and nobody is suggesting that we can keep up the effort if everything shuts. There are essential businesses that have to stay open. But we need to think carefully about what those should be, and then legally require everything else to close. The government must ask itself: are the trainers and cakes worth the extra coronavirus cases – and the consequential increased risk to lives and pressure on the health service?

No matter how much we want our new Reeboks, the government must crack down now. It is clear that while some employers have acted responsibly in response to the guidance, many haven’t. The repeated inclination by the government to leave a certain amount of discretion will inevitably mean that some companies exploit the rules and don’t abide by the spirit of the advice. It is time that the government stepped in and made it explicit; if businesses won’t abide by the spirit of the guidance, then they should be made to obey the letter of the law.