How should COVID related absence/leave be processed?

On 24 June the Scottish Government issued DL (2022) 21 advising that the series of temporary policies and variations to standard terms and conditions pertaining to COVID had now been removed. This confirms that the majority of the temporary COVID related policies ended on 30th June 2022.  

Further to this, COVID Special Leave provisions ended on 31 August 2022. As of 1^st September 2022, any trainee absence with COVID related symptoms will be treated in line with all other sick absence. This essentially means that staff who are absent due to COVID related symptoms will move on to contractual sick leave provisions, rather than be treated as special leave.  

However, where a trainee receives a positive LFD test result for COVID-19, regardless of whether they have symptoms, they should not attend work for a minimum of 5 days.  In these circumstances, staff will continue to be treated as being on “Special Leave – Covid Positive” i.e. paid in full as if at work.