The Scottish system will be open to workers in 13 critical industries such as defense, emergency services, finance, transport, government and food when staff shortages threaten operations.
Workers can opt out of the system even if they are entitled to it, which means they can self-isolate against their employer’s will.
The NHS is particularly burdened due to the high number of staff absenteeism. A separate exception rule will be announced for health and social workers.
If the government believes that a critical role can be exempted, the worker must still demonstrate that they have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, have a negative PCR test, and at least two weeks prior to close contact with a positive case agreed to have him perform lateral flow tests for 10 days.
Exceptions only apply as long as “if there is an immediate risk to business or service continuity”.
Stephen Montgomery, spokesman for the Scottish Hospitality Group, said his sector was “pushed aside” in the program.
“Recruitment Crisis”
“Hospitality is in the middle of a recruitment crisis,” he said. “The industry doesn’t have the luxury of getting 10, 20 or 30 new employees out of a closet in the office because everyone else was pinged as close contact.” We should have the same quarantine exceptions. “
The Scottish Retail Consortium said it was “annoying” that the store’s staff did not appear to be within the scope of the program, but said it could help with supply chains as some supermarket shelves due to the high number of workers such as truck drivers, that isolate themselves, remained empty.
Meanwhile, unions criticized the changes, claiming they were a gamble on workers’ health.
Ms. Sturgeon said that after a chaotic rollout of the program, exceptions might be “more generous” in the future. The Scottish government proposed on Thursday evening that the changes would not be announced until next month, only to reveal details hours later after it became known that exemptions would apply in England.
“We have seen significant staff shortages in a small number of organizations over the past few days and have worked with them to protect the services,” said the First Minister.
“However, this is currently a very limited change to be applied on a case-by-case basis and only when absolutely necessary.”
Douglas Ross, chairman of the Scottish Tories, said there were still open questions about how the program worked, such as: B. How long exemptions would take and how this would be decided.
He added, “There is also real concern that the SNP will overwhelm businesses and individuals with red tape. The application process should run as smoothly as possible at a time when companies are already under great pressure. “