Covid: Businesses hit by new wave of sickness

With Covid cases at record levels and rising, employers are bracing for large numbers of workers to call in sick.

The Strats Homes lettings agency is being harder-hit than most. Out of 12 staff, only three are still working.

“We’re staying away from each other and we’re managing the best we can,” says finance manager Maria Stratis.

Hospitals, schools, theatres, transport providers and football teams are also being affected as workers succumb to the new wave of Omicron infections.

And with the UK Health Security Agency’s chief executive Jenny Harries warning of a “staggering” number of cases in coming days, it’s likely that many other businesses will follow.

Strats Homes in Hatfield would normally be busy at this time of year, letting properties for students at the University of Hertfordshire.

“It’s really stressful because it’s Christmas next week and everyone is coming down with Covid,” says Ms Stratis.

“Four maintenance people, five in the office, one by one they have all been testing positive.

“Three of us are managing everything. We have had to lock our doors, and we’ve switched to doing everything remotely."

The company has told tenants they can’t fix anything because all maintenance staff are currently off work.

At Copy Concept in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, it's a similar story. Director Richard Burmo has tested positive, but feels he had to keep working to keep the business going.

Mr Burmo sells art supplies, stationery and gifts, and also offers printing and copying services.

His symptoms haven’t been too serious so he has kept working alone in his closed shop doing jobs for delivery and mail order customers. But any walk-in trade has been lost, and his two employees can’t risk exposure by coming to work.

“It’s not very helpful,” he says.

Increased absences have forced bus and train companies to cut services, and the impact of Covid is only going to get worse, according to the RMT union.

The union, which represents transport workers, is warning there will be a "significant impact" on services with infections predicted to grow further over Christmas and New Year.

Last weekend, ScotRail cancelled a number of trains, mainly in the central belt of Scotland, after 113 staff tested positive, including 37 drivers.

The company is considering operating a reduced timetable if it is hit by another significant rise in Covid cases.

Meanwhile, Stagecoach has confirmed some of its bus services have been affected by workers being off sick.

However, the firm said it was "continuing to run the vast majority of services as planned".

According to the Rail Delivery Group, train operators across the UK currently have 7.5% of staff absent due to all causes including Covid.

Gary Grant, chief executive of toy retailer The Entertainer, which sells one in 10 of the UK's toys, also said that more staff in the business were testing positive with Covid now than since the pandemic began.

The toy chain had also experienced a 20% fall in footfall, according to Mr Grant, but those coming into shops were spending more money, in order to get presents in time for Christmas and avoid delivery delays.

The government, he explained, had done "amazing things" with furlough support and business rates during the pandemic which he said he wants them to look into again.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the NHS Trusts he represents were “definitely beginning to see numbers of staff having to take time off and be absent from work because of Covid increase".

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that trusts were making plans for significant numbers of staff being off.

Elsewhere, 3,000 pupils in England have been off because their schools were shut because of Covid, according to the Department for Education, but with the Christmas holidays a few days away, schools will soon get some respite.

Ministers have said they will try to reopen schools as normal in January, but if that doesn’t happen more workers may have to take time off to look after children, which might add to the absence problem.

Meanwhile, Royal Mail has confirmed that absence is at twice pre-pandemic levels, though it insists deliveries are running as normal.

Football matches have been cancelled following a record number of positive tests among Premier League clubs, with Leicester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Watford all having to postpone games.

A number of West End shows including the Lion King have also cancelled performances following positive tests among cast and crew.

Representatives of industries which were hit hard in the summer, when many workers had to self-isolate during the so-called "pingdemic", such as meat processors and car makers, said their members had not been reporting problems so far.

And after dealing with the pandemic for nearly two years, many business leaders feel they are as well placed as they can be to deal with whatever the new wave throws at them.

Richard Norrington, chief executive of the Suffolk Building Society, said he is confident the business can keep going despite the new rise in cases.

Most of his 100 head office staff are equipped with laptops to work from home, so he doesn’t think it’s likely that a significant proportion would be off work at once.

“I would expect a few branch closures, but they will be deep-cleaned and reopened, usually the next day,” he says. “Am I concerned? Yes. But I am also calm.”