Totally agree with everyone saying 'join a union' tonight. But you can also refuse to work for safety reasons. Talk to your workmates about doing it. You can take action under Health and Safety law without a ballot or giving your employer the right to dock your pay... 1/7

Section 7 of the Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 (HSAWA 1974) places a duty on every employee while at work:

a) to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work. 2/7

Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 protects employees (with no qualifying service period) from detriment:

d) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which he could not reasonably have been expected to avert...3/7

..., he left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to his place of work or any dangerous part of his place of work, or... 4/7

e) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, he took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect himself or other persons from the danger. 5/7

The Labour Research Department explains:
“As long as the employee forms a genuine view of a risk that they reasonably regard as serious and imminent, the fact that the employer disagrees with the seriousness of the risk or the appropriateness of the steps taken is irrelevant.”6/7

Full info here: https://www.rs21.org.uk/2020/03/13/acting-on-covid-19/ 7/7

And this thread https://twitter.com/charlottor/status/1259565137494769670?s=19