Two-thirds of UK workers with long Covid have faced unfair treatment, says report
UK ministers should act to ensure long Covid sufferers receive the support they need from employers, with as many as two-thirds claiming they have been unfairly treated at work, a report argues.
The report, from the TUC and the charity Long Covid Support, warns that failing to accommodate the 2m people who, according to ONS data, may be suffering from long Covid in the UK will create, “new, long-lasting inequalities”.
The analysis is based on responses from more than 3,000 long Covid sufferers who agreed to share their experiences.
Two-thirds said they had experienced some form of unfair treatment at work, ranging from harassment to being disbelieved about their symptoms or threatened with disciplinary action. One in seven said they had lost their job.
The report, released on Monday, makes a series of recommendations, including urging the government to designate long Covid as a disability for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act, to make clear sufferers are entitled to “reasonable adjustments” at work; and to classify Covid-19 as an occupational disease to allow people who contracted it through their job to seek compensation.
Long Covid is an umbrella term for a wide range of symptoms experienced by some people after contracting Covid-19, which can include chronic fatigue, brain fog and breathing difficulties, and can last months or even years.
Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said: “Workers with long Covid have been badly let down. Many of these are the key workers who carried us through the pandemic – yet now some are being forced out of their jobs.
“Ministers must make sure all workers with long Covid have the legal right to reasonable adjustments at work so they can stay in their jobs.”
The report argues that such
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