Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 4 March 2020.

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Photo of Delyth Jewell Delyth Jewell Plaid Cymru 2:41, 4 March 2020

Thank you for those answers, Minister. That is reassuring, to hear that you've been discussing this literally this morning, and that the plans are in place. Obviously, where it's appropriate, it would be good to have sight of those, but I appreciate that there'll be some things that can't be shared at the same time.

You mentioned sickness in the workforce. Current advice issued by Public Health Wales is that those suspecting they have coronavirus should self-quarantine until a negative test is received. An issue that was raised in the Chamber yesterday was that of zero-hours contracts, but I think that the issue also applies to those who are self-employed or on low wages, where if those people lose shifts, they will also lose wages. We know that many people in the social care sector are on low wages, and are not benefiting from lots of employment protections as we would like to see them benefiting from.

It's particularly important that we prevent the virus spreading into residential care homes, I'm sure that you'll agree with that point, and so people working in these homes would need to have reassurance that if they don't come into work, they would be protected in that way. So, are you in a position to be able to guarantee that those workers who are often employed by local councils would not be facing any economic loss if they follow official health advice and don't go into work if they are suspected and have to self-quarantine? I don't mean just in the short term—sorry, I mean in the short term, not just hypothetical, longer term paying back if they were to develop the symptoms later.