来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2022年2月6日
Sajid Javid has begun a rather dramatic U-turn. Until recently, the health secretary insisted that care workers and frontline NHS staff had to get vaccinated against Covid or find another post, but the policy has now been dropped. Compulsory vaccination is still good health policy, he told fellow MPs, but ministers worry about a plunge in staff numbers. Yet there is a policy that public health officials, doctors and trade unionists have been calling for since the start of the pandemic, and that would not infringe on civil liberties or dent staff numbers: introducing a proper sick pay system. Doing that would reduce the spread of infectious diseases, ease the cost-of-living crisis for the working poor during this pandemic, and be a small step towards a fairer country.
赛义德·贾维德来了个戏剧性的180度大转弯。不久前，这位卫生大臣还坚持要求护理人员和一线NHS工作人员必须接种新冠疫苗，否则就另谋他职，但现在该政策已被取消。他告诉其他议员，强制接种疫苗仍然是一项好的卫生政策，但部长们担心员工数量的锐减。然而，有一项政策是公共卫生官员、医生和工会成员自疫情开始以来一直在呼吁的，而且该政策不会侵犯公民自由或减少员工数量：引入适当的病假工资制度。这样做将减少传染病的传播，缓解这场大流行期间贫困劳动者的生活成本危机，并向更公平的国家迈出一小步。
The UK’s statutory sick pay system is in terrible health. The previous health secretary, Matt Hancock, admitted that he couldn’t live on what it pays, currently £96.35 a week. No surprise there: it is among the lowest sick pay in the industrialised world.
英国的法定病假工资制度状况很糟糕。前卫生大臣马特·汉考克承认，仅靠目前每周96.35英镑的病假收入，他根本无法生活下去。这并不奇怪：96.35英镑是工业化国家中最低的病假工资之一。
Even worse, about 2 million workers do not earn enough to qualify for it, a fact that troubled the government enough to consult on whether to make the regime more generous. Three out of four employers who responded agreed that statutory sick pay should be extended, and small businesses were as supportive as large. Despite such hearty enthusiasm, the welfare secretary, Thérèse Coffey, long-grassed any idea of reform. The motive is probably the same as that behind last autumn’s withdrawal of the £20 boost to universal credit: the government does not want any of its pandemic-era “giveaways” to become permanent.
更糟糕的是，约有200万工人的收入不足以达到领取病假工资的资格，这一事实让政府很头疼，以至于政府不得不考虑是否要让病假工资制度更加慷慨。四分之三的受访雇主认为，法定病假工资应该扩大覆盖范围，小企业和大企业一样支持。尽管有如此的热情，福利部长塞雷斯·科菲，长期反对任何改革的想法。其动机可能与去年秋天取消20英镑的统一福利提振计划背后的动机相同：政府不希望大流行时期的任何“福利”成为永久性的。
The UK is thus running a huge risk to public health. If waiters think they are coming down with Covid but know they are not eligible for any sick pay, they have every incentive to go to work and cough. If care workers suspect they are seriously ill but worry that £96 a week will leave them behind on rent and bills, they have a choice: fall into debt or risk patients getting ill – with potentially serious consequences. These are terrible choices, yet ministers force them on low-paid workers every single day. About 8 million workers – more than a quarter of the labour force – face penury just for falling ill.
因此，英国正面临着公众健康的巨大风险。如果服务员认为自己感染了新冠病毒，但又知道自己没有资格获得任何病假工资，他们就会有充分的动力去上班并咳嗽。如果护理人员怀疑自己病得很严重，但又担心每周96英镑的病假工资不足以支付房租和其他账单，他们面临一个选择：负债或者冒着传染给病人的风险去工作——这可能会带来严重的后果。这些都是可怕的选择，然而部长们每天都迫使低收入的工人做这些选择。大约800万工人——超过劳动力的四分之一——仅仅因为生病就面临贫困。
A healthier sick pay regime would allow anyone to claim it, regardless of low earnings. It would vastly increase mandatory pay and allow workers to claim from day one of their illness. When, in spring 2020, Rishi Sunak announced his measures to prop up the economy and slow the spread of coronavirus, he said: “We’re all in this together.” It was a generous phrase that soon rang hollow, as more and more low-paid workers fell ill just by doing their often essential jobs. The chancellor has had nearly two years to fix the sick pay system. If not now, when?
一个更好的病假工资制度将允许任何人申请，不管收入有多低。它将大幅提高强制性工资，并允许工人从生病的第一天起就能申领病假工资。2020年春天，当里希·苏纳克宣布措施来支撑经济和减缓新冠病毒的传播时，他说：“我们都在一起。”这是一个慷慨的说法，但很快就听起来空洞了，因为越来越多的低收入工人在做通常在别人看来重要的工作时生病了。这位财政大臣有近两年的时间来修复病假工资体系。如果不是现在，那会是什么时候？