Coronavirus and flexibility for HR matters

Coronavirus and flexibility for HR matters

Also in the field of HR, companies are confronted with numerous questions following CORONA.

A few principles  should be taken into account in this regard:

• an employee cannot be forced by the employer to take holidays;
• although employees and employers can mutually agree to home work if home work is possible, neither the employee nor the employer can in principle unilaterally enforce home work;
• the employer cannot bluntly deny an employee access to the company;
• the employer must ensure safe working conditions which, depending on the concrete circumstances, may be a cause to oblige a particular employee (e.g. when he would return from an infected area) to work from home;
• as an employer, you can exempt an employee from work, in which case wages will continue to accrue;
• employees who have to care of an infected family member or want to take care of their children can take (unpaid) temporary absence from work for compelling reasons (10 days a year). Alternatively, the employee may opt to take holidays (paid) or other forms of unpaid leave.
• since travelling abroad is not recommended, business trips should preferably be postponed or cancelled;
• for employees who present a medical certificate proving their incapacity for work, the employer must, in principle, pay the guaranteed salary to white-collar workers for one month and to blue-collar workers for seven days. After this period, the employee concerned can receive a benefit from the health insurance fund.
• for employees who find themselves in quarantine, temporary unemployment due to force majeure due to CORONA can be requested, as a result of which they receive 65% of their average capped salary (capped at EUR 2,754.76 per month (and until 30 June 2020 70% of the average capped salary).

Would you like to know more?

The Racine team is at your disposal to answer your specific questions.