Covid 19 coronavirus: It's not acceptable to make sick workers come in, Biz NZ boss

Kirk Hope, Business New Zealand chief executive. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It is not acceptable for businesses to make sick employees come into work, Business New Zealand chief executive Kirk Hope has warned.

Hope told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning that people needed to take responsibility and do the right thing.

Hope's comments come on the back of the latest outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland where a student has claimed she told her boss she was sick and waiting for a Covid test result but came into work anyway wearing a mask.

The employer has brought in a lawyer and said they never knew the worker was sick.

Hope said making a sick worker come in was not okay.

"No, it is not acceptable and the reason for that is because if you look at this particular case it is not just affecting that business or that business owner or even that employee it is going to affect a whole range of businesses.

"People need to take responsibility for that and do the right thing. If your employees say they are sick and are experiencing symptoms of Covid - they should be suggesting they go get tested."

Hope said the situation reinforced the importance of contact tracing and for people to continue to scan the QR codes.

"That is going to be where the missing dots are filled in today I think."

Hope said under alert level 1 people did tend to fall out of the habit of signing in using the codes.

"Lots of businesses still have them up, most businesses still have them up - if people get in the habit of using it, it becomes less of a pain and it enables the authorities to very quickly track and contact trace people in the event that you have a cluster like this occurring and that means it is less likely businesses have to shut down and that people have to stay at home again."

Auckland CBD workers have been asked to work from home today meaning hospitality and retail businesses will miss out on trade again without any compensation.

Many had just been getting back on their feet again after the last Auckland lockdown.