14-Mar-2020
Written by Nasser Messaike – Associate & Aurore Deeb - Senior Associate
Coronavirus Impact on Labor Matters
Coronavirus COVID-19, new pandemic, started spreading in the world in late 2019, now the cases have exceeded 100, 000 all over the world, and the world health organization declared this virus as a “public health emergency of international concern”, and due to such fact, many traveler employees were forced to stay in quarantine, isolated for a specific period and to conduct medical tests to make sure that they do not carry coronavirus.
Would this period of isolation be considered as a (a) sick leave, (b) annual paid leave or (c) unpaid leaves? We hereby set different scenarios to help both employee and employers dealing with such matter.
A) Coronavirus tested positive in the event an employee is tested to be positive, it will be considered in all the jurisdiction as being a sick leave.
However, each jurisdiction has a different perspective for the sick leaves.
For example, in the United States of America, in the usual course of business, there are no federal legal requirements for paid sick leave. For companies subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act this Act provides for unpaid sick leave.
However, and based on government’s recommendation facing the Coronavirus, major companies such as Amazon, Uber, Walmart, McDonald’s, Apple, Instacart, Lyft and Darden Restaurants amended their policies, in relation to sick leaves as to their sole discretion and without any legal guidelines. In other meaning, Walmart announced that employees in mandatory isolation can receive up to two weeks of sick pay, matching the government-recommended quarantine time period, however, those with a confirmed case can receive “additional pay replacement” for up to 26 weeks. As per McDonald’s it has announced that employees will be paid if they are required to be in quarantine for up to 14 days. However, Darden Restaurants declared that its monthly salary employees would receive “permanent, paid sick leave benefits” as per the hourly workers, they will receive up to 40 hours sick leave.
As per the Qatari Laws, the worker has the right to take a paid sick leave, however, a sick leave will not be granted until the employee has accomplished three (3) months of employment, and provided that his illness is confirmed by a certificate from a doctor approved by the employer.
The worker will receive his full wage if the period of sick leave does not exceed two (2) weeks, and if it extends after that, he will be granted half of his wage for another four (4) weeks, and any extension after four (4) weeks shall be unpaid.
As per the Lebanese Laws, if the employee is tested positive, he shall be entitled for a paid sick leave as per the provisions of the Lebanese Labor Law as follows:
1- Half a month, with full wages, and the other half a month, with half wages, for the employee who spent three months or more in service for up to two years.
2- A month with full pay, and a month with half pay, for the employee who spent more than two years to four years in service.
3- A month and a half, with full wages, and a month and a half with half wages, for the employee who spent more than four years to six years in service.
4- Two months, with full wages, and two months in half wages, for the employee who spent more than six years to ten years in service.
5- Two and a half month, with full wages, and two and a half months, with half wages for the employee whose service exceeds ten years.
B) Coronavirus tested Negative
The main question, in the event of negative test, remains how the employer will react in the event, an employee is tested negative, however, the government takes the decision to keep him in quarantine for further protection.
As previously stated, in the United States of America, due to the absence of legal requirements, based on government recommendations the major companies are considering the mandatory quarantine either the employee is tested positive or negative, to be a paid sick leave, however, every company is granting a different sick leave period.
However, in countries such Qatar, Lebanon and France, the situation differs as law organize the annual leaves and sick leaves and courts have previously ruled on similar cases.
Many courts’ decision in France and Lebanon consider that in the event of a force majeure preventing an employee from reaching his work and preventing him from undertaking his obligations, an employer cannot bear the burden of such absence, and in such case the employee cannot claim a salary for the period of his absence due to a force majeure.
Thus, if a mandatory quarantine is imposed on an employee despite being tested negative, however, such employee continue to perform his obligations under the employment contract and thus works remotely, in such event, the employee will not be disconnected from his work and the employer cannot consider that the employee absent.
What if the employee, is in a mandatory quarantine, however, is not working remotely, for whatever reason? In such event the employer shall not bear the burden of such absence and will have to consider three scenarios; (1) the employee did not consume his paid leaves; (2) the employee consumed part of his paid leaves; and (3) the employee consumed all of his paid leaves.
If the employee has not consumed his annual leaves, then the mandatory isolation period will be deducted from his annual leaves and will be considered a paid leave.
In the event the employee’s remaining annual leaves are not enough to cover all of the isolation period, the remaining days after the consumption of the annual leaves will be considered as an unpaid leave.
As well, if the employee has consumed all of his annual leaves then the mandatory period of isolation, as a force majeure, will be considered as an unpaid leave.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that during a force majeure event, the employer does not have the right to terminate the employment of the employee, he may only consider it as an unpaid leave, subject of the employee consuming all his annual leaves.