A top Irish lawyer has revealed what you should do if your employer asks you to come to work if you have been deemed a close contact of a case of Covid-19.
Richard Grogan offered the advice on his popular TikTok account after he received questions from employees after their boss insisted they come into work if they had no symptoms.
The expert in providing legal services in Employment Law & Personal Injury Litigation said: "Now I'm getting messages in today from individuals who are getting text messages and emails from their employer or phone calls saying even though you're a close contact you're to come to work if you have no symptoms.
"Now, that is completely contrary to the HSE guidelines."
The current HSE guidelines state that if you are a close contact of a confirmed Covid case, you must restrict your movements for ten days or five days if you have received the booster jab.
Mr Grogan told his followers what they should do if they find themselves in a situation where their employer has asked them not to adhere to these guidelines.
He said: "So I've been asked what should you do if that happens, and I'll tell you what you do.
"The first thing is you go onto the HSA website, that's the HSA website, and you file a complaint.
"And the second thing is you send an email to your employer, and you say I've put in a complaint to the HSA.
"And why would you do that and I'll tell you why, because once you've done that, you've made a complaint under the Safety, Health and Welfare Work Act and if there's any detriment or even a threat of a detriment against you for having done that, then you've got a claim to the WRC under that particular act."
He added: "You're entitled to comply with HSE guidelines."
Mr Grogan also explained what you are entitled to if you contract Covid while on holidays from work.
He said: "Now the law in relation to this is that if you are ill while you're on holidays, then in those circumstances, if you produce a doctor's certificate, you get your holidays back."
However, Richard explained if you have not tested positive for Covid and have been asked to self-isolate by the HSE as a close contact, the situation may differ.
He said: "So what the position is if you're not ill, but you have to self isolate, now I'm going to be honest with you, and say this is a case that is going to have to go to the Labour Court at some stage.
As the law currently stands, you'll only get the holidays back if you're ill, and the question will be if the HSE have said that you have to self isolate, then in those circumstances, it seems that there may well be claims from people that say I should get the holidays back on that situation. But we'll have to wait and see."
