When Covid-19 broke out at an M&S sandwich factory, workers were told they would be paid just £95 per week if they had symptoms and needed to self-isolate. That’s not enough for most people to pay rent or feed their families -- so many workers showed up to work anyway.*

Within days, there were hundreds of confirmed cases.

The factory is now closed for two weeks. But Covid’s not going anywhere.

Sickness, deaths and hardship will revisit this factory again and again, unless Marks & Spencer changes its policy. And it will -- if we don’t let it get away with this appalling way of treating workers. It simply cannot afford bad publicity right now.

Factory workers are expected to stay home and go hungry if they show Covid symptoms.

But managers receive full pay under the same circumstances! M&S’s sandwich supplier Greencore reportedly has a terrible track record of protecting workers during the pandemic. For months it refused to give safety equipment to shop floor staff. 

Now self-isolating workers are relying on food banks to feed their families. Some were evicted from their homes, unable to pay rent. Factory workers are organising together to fight for fair pay -- but they need the outspoken support of SumOfUs members like you to show M&S the public is watching.

We can win this because we’ve done it before. When Uber refused to pay a fair wage to its drivers, tens of thousands of SumOfUs members joined the fight. Transport for London caved and said it would regulate Uber to make it treat drivers fairly.

Covid has had a huge impact on all of us -- but people in minimum wage jobs, working in cramped warehouses are bearing the brunt of the burden. Together we can make sure big corporations like M&S do their bit to keep their workers and our whole communities safe.

Can you sign now to demand M&S and its sandwich maker Greencore immediately give full pay to self-isolating employees?

*Greencore has now agreed to give workers 80% of their wages -- but only for the months of August and September.

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