Ikea could face a boycott from shoppers after the Swedish superstore announced that it would not be paying unvaccinated employees with “mitigating circumstances” full sick pay if they fall ill.
Following an announcement from the furniture group yesterday, customers have taken to social media to express their dismay with some/many saying they will no longer go there.
It has been reported by the Daily Mail that unvaccinated workers sick pay could be cut to £96.35, the legal minimum rate. Normally the average work pay for IKEA staff working the shop floor is £10.10 an hour and for those working in London £11.30 an hour. This would equal to £404 for an average working week outside London and £452 to those working in London.
A spokesperson for IKEA has said: “Fully vaccinated co-workers or those that are unvaccinated owing to mitigating circumstances which, for example, could include pregnancy or other medical grounds, will receive full pay”
“Unvaccinated co-workers without mitigating circumstances that test positive with Covid will be paid full company sick pay in line with our company absence policy. Unvaccinated co-workers without mitigating circumstances who have been identified as close contacts of a positive case will be paid Statutory Sick Pay”
“We know this is a highly emotive topic and we appreciate there are many unique circumstances. As such all will be considered on a case by case basis”.
The reaction from this news has been mixed with some social media users taking a strong stance against this change. As of Monday the 11th of January, #BoycottIKEA has been trending on twitter for several hours.
A social media user has tweeted about this topic saying: “IKEA’s highly discriminatory employment policies regarding the unvaccinated will end badly. In the meantime #BoycottIkea”
Another user tweeted: “#BoycottIKEA Disgusting how IKEA can discriminate in this day and age. Some cannot have the vaxx, some are scared. I will not be using IKEA until they upturn this discrimination.”
A third user thought that this was enough of a reason to stop using the store completely, tweeting:
“Well, that’s @IKEAUK off my shopping list now. Discriminating on health grounds. Against the unvaccinated. Time to #BoycottIKEA. If the hit staff in their pockets they don’t deserve profit from our business.”
Some twitter users have backed the change with tweets including #SupportIKEA.
One of these users who argued on the side of the store and encouraged others to follow, saying:
“If only every single other retail outlet in existence followed IKEA’s fine example, these simpletons could boycott everything and just stay under their rocks permanently. We’ll all be infinitely safer.”
Another user supported these changes by tweeting: “#SupportIKEA for taking care of customers!”.
A final user showed her support for IKEA by saying: “#SupportIKEA the anti vaxxer crowd is tweeting #boycottIKEA because they think it’s a medical apartheid and akin to enslavement to stop paying unvaxxed idiots full wages if required to self isolate. Its just another reason to love and support IKEA.”
What do you think? Leave your comments below.