Greene King closes 33 pubs after staff told to self-isolate Business News

One of the UK’s largest pub chains has been forced to shut down 33 of its sites after workers were asked to self-isolate.

Nick Mackenzie, Managing Director of Greene King, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “It’s a problem and I think it could get worse. It disrupts business.

“We have had to close 33 pubs in the past seven days due to understaffing due to self-isolation.

A sharp rise in the number of Covid cases has resulted in more than half a million people being ‘pinched’ by the NHS app after coming into close contact with someone with Covid-19 in the week leading up to the 7th July.

That number is expected to rise as all restrictions are lifted on Monday.

Slug and Lettuce owner Stonegate said 1,000 of his employees are unavailable for work and 15 of his bars are closed.

Advertising groups, including Stonegate, wrote to the Prime Minister last week urging him to relax the rules so that workers who have received two doses of the vaccine or who test negative after having been vaccinated do not to self-isolate and return to work.

Mr. Mackenzie added: “Across the industry, we believe that about one in five of our team has been affected by this and as a result it is a real problem for us to start a business in the world. daily – we must have shortened hours in certain circumstances. “

The prime minister came under heavy criticism over the weekend after it was announced he would not be self-isolating despite his health secretary Sajid Javid found out on Friday that he had contracted the virus. Downing Street quickly withdrew and confirmed Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak would self-isolate.

Humphrey Cobbold, CEO of PureGym, told the Today program: “We’ve been talking internally for some time about living in ‘United Pingdom’ and it’s become a huge challenge for individuals and businesses.

“Up to 25%, in some areas, of our staff have been asked to self-isolate – we have been able, through flexibility and work sharing, to keep the sites open so far, but this has been a very close call in some circumstances, and I would echo that there is a different way of responding to pings for vaccinated people and using lateral flow testing that would help industries of all kinds a lot and keep the functioning of the economy. “