Boots staff who swabbed people for Covid at government testing sites lose jobs in shake-up

Boots staff who volunteered to take on potentially dangerous roles at government coronavirus testing sites for the high-street giant have lost their jobs.

Boots employees have been helping to operate official drive-in centres across the UK since March.

But since then the company has announced plans to cut more than 4,000 jobs and close almost 50 of its Boots Opticians stores.

Some of those who signed up to work on the front line against the pandemic are among those who have been made redundant.

Boots said it would have been wrong to give those who had signed up to work in the government’s testing scheme special treatment in the redundancy process.

But the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said staff and their families “deserved better”.

The row is not the first time that the role of Boots in the testing programme has proved controversial.

In May there was an outcry when the company advertised for hundreds of unpaid volunteers across the UK to sign up to work 32 hours a week taking throat and nose swabs.

Those who applied were told they would be given personal protective equipment (PPE) in line with NHS standards.

But they were also warned to consider the health of their own families before signing up for the roles.

At the time the company said that a total of 1,000 people were needed, to be made up of a combination of the volunteers and existing Boots staff.

But the adverts were pulled days after they were highlighted by The Independent.

Since then, long-term Boots staff – who are paid, unlike the planned “volunteers” – have continued to work at testing sites across the country, however.

Daniel Adams, national officer for Usdaw, said: “This is deeply distressing news for Boots staff and their families; they deserve better. Our high streets desperately need the government to develop a sector-specific recovery plan to get a grip of this crisis.”

Andy McDonald, a member of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet who speaks for Labour on employment rights, said: “The government’s failure to provide certainty and security for businesses and key workers throughout the pandemic is shameful. It is grossly unfair and indicative of the government’s treatment of key workers that those who went above and beyond in the national effort against the virus are now suffering redundancy during an economic crisis.”

A spokesperson for Boots said: “In July 2020 we announced a restructuring programme to ensure the long-term and sustainable future of our business. We know that this was a difficult time for colleagues who were impacted; making redundancies is never an easy decision. Throughout the consultation we ensured that the process was fair and proper, and that we treated everyone with the dignity, care and respect they deserved. Not all colleagues were able to be a part of the government’s testing scheme and to single them out would have been unfair.”