Food Workers Exemption from Isolation Rules.
Supermarket depot workers and food manufacturers in England will be exempt from quarantine rules as the government tries to prevent food supply problems. Up to 10,000 staff are expected to qualify for the scheme, but supermarket workers are not included. The move comes after the high number of retail staff self-isolating affected the availability of some products.
Iceland welcomed the change, but said it wouldn’t solve the issue of staff shortages in supermarkets themselves.
“The food supply chain only works if teams are in place to support at each stage – there’s no point in fixing the manufacturing and logistics issues if there is no one to put products on the shelves, serve customers at the till and deliver to their homes,” said Iceland boss Richard Walker.
Food Workers Exemption from Isolation Rules
The new daily contact testing measures are beginning on Friday at 15 supermarket depots, followed by 150 depots next week, but they will not apply to supermarket store staff.
It will mean workers who are alerted by the app or contacted by NHS Test and Trace will be able to continue working if they test negative, whether or not they are vaccinated.
Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Breakfast shop staff had been excluded from the scheme because their inclusion would have been a “really significant undertaking”.
“You’re talking then thousands of different shops and many more people and we still want to maintain the test, trace and isolate system.” However, he added that the government would keep the policy “under review, but we think this is a sensible first step. We’re never going to take risks with our food supply chain.”
The government’s move comes as supermarkets said the supply of some products was being affected by the “pingdemic” keeping staff away from work.
While some retailers said they may have to close stores, they played down fears of food shortages, saying the problems were not widespread.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said “disruption is limited at the moment”, but it was vital that the government rolled out the scheme as fast as possible and was prepared to take further action if necessary.
Separately, the government outlined plans to allow other key industries in England to deploy daily Covid testing instead of self-isolation for a limited number of essential workers. In this case, the scheme will only apply to workers who are fully vaccinated.
This scheme covers sectors including transport, emergency services, border control, energy, digital infrastructure, waste, the water industry, essential defence outputs and local government.
The policy applies only to workers named on a list kept updated by officials – it is not a blanket exemption for all employees in a sector.