Workers suspected of having coronavirus who are staying at home will be able to receive statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, the Prime Minister has announced.
Boris Johnson said payments will be moved forward from the fourth day of sickness under emergency legislation to limit the spread of the virus known as Covid-19.
The move comes after the government has faced pressures to introduce measures to help employees who are following health advice in not turning up for work and are self-isolating.
Speaking at PMQs on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said individuals who self-isolate are "helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus."
"If they stay at home and if we ask people to self isolate they may lose out financially," he told the Commons.
"So I can today announce that the Health Secretary will bring forward, as part of our emergency coronavirus legislation, measures to allow the payment of statutory sick pay from the very first day you are sick instead of four days under the current rules and I think that’s the right way forward.
"Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing."
On Tuesday, the Trades Union Congress started a petition for every worker in the UK to get sick pay from day one.
They said: "It shouldn’t take a pandemic to resolve the inequality of sick pay. But the threat of coronavirus shows why sick pay should be a day one right for everybody."
The union body called for emergency legislation that gives every worker the right to statutory sick pay from the first day of absence; scraps the minimum earnings threshold for statutory sick pay; and ensures that sick pay is paid to workers having to self-isolate.
On Wednesday, a further 32 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the UK - bringing the total to 85.
