Jim McMahon OBE, Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton, has today backed the ‘Time Out to Help Out’ campaign proposed by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham, and the TUC. The campaign seeks to mitigate against those who would lose out on pay if requested to self-isolate, and therefore be unable to pay their bills, by calling for employees to still be paid their full wage if they are self-isolating and unable to work from home.
Mr McMahon said, “We should be doing everything we can to help everyone do the right thing, short of a vaccine Test and Trace is our best method of opening back up and getting people back in work. But it won’t work if people are unable to follow requests to self-isolate, especially if that means between choosing between paying the bills or not.”
“The ‘Time Out to Help Out’ campaign would remove that choice, it would ensure that some of our lowest paid workers, the self-employed, and those for whom Statutory Sick Pay represents a huge fall in income, can do their bit and take some time out to help out.”
“Until we sort this problem out there is still going to be a massive issue with our national effort to combat Covid-19. I think the comparison to jury service is a good one, self-isolating to combat the coronavirus is a civic duty and we don’t expect people to not get paid when they’re called to serve on a jury.”
You can find out more about the Time Out to Help Out Campaign at www.timeouttohelpout.com
Jim McMahon OBE MP 