Hospital workers to quarantine without pay after trips abroad

In light of new national guidelines hospital staff can not …

In light of new national guidelines hospital staff can not return to work immediately after trips abroad.

Ásgeir Ingvarsson

mbl.is

The management of the National University Hospital of Iceland has decided that all workers at the hospital must self-quarantine for at least five days after making trips abroad. For those days staff will either go without pay or use a part of their allotted quota of days off.

A notice regarding this new policy was published on the University Hospital´s website and is to take effect tomorrow, Friday July 10th. Workers are to request time off from work for both their holiday and the quarantine days and must receive permission from their supervisors before making their trips, Mbl.is reports.

The notice goes on to explain that this decision conforms with the latest guidelines from the Directorate of Health where Icelanders are advised against traveling to areas where there could be a risk of Covid-19 transmission, and where those who reside in Iceland but travel abroad are required to get a Covid-19 test at the border, then self-quarantine for five days and finally take a second test to confirm the negative result of the first one.

„With that in mind the CEO and the board of directors of the University Hospital have decided that workers who go abroad for a holiday must self-quarantine at their own expense“, says the notice in bold print indicating that work days spent in quarantine, per the new guidelines, will either not be paid or be deducted from each worker´s allotted vacation days.

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