Member Article

First, we recommend that, in conjunction with their occupational health professionals, companies should define a plan to react to the various scenarios they may face. This plan should address issues such as:

• The different risk scenarios;

• The actions to be taken in each of these scenarios;

• The measures to be applied to groups of workers who, because of their situation or condition, are particularly exposed to serious health risks in the event of infection;

• The people in the company responsible for each scenario;

• The authorities that should be involved;

Can workers be excluded from the company when there is a risk of infection? What are the consequences for the salary?

We need to distinguish between the reaction to a worker with symptoms of COVID-19 and the worker who has been exposed to the risk of infection.

Any worker who has symptoms should be placed in an isolation area that is properly equipped with essential items, gloves and masks. That person must then contact the health authorities, which will decide what to do next.

When a worker has been exposed to the risk of infection, the company may, in conjunction with the occupational health department, remove that person from the place of work and from any contact with other workers. The company should also advise that person to go into preventative self-isolation.

Once the worker in question has been removed, two scenarios can arise:

• If the worker has a job they can do from home, the company should provide them with whatever they need to do so and continue to pay their salary. Under Decree-Law 10-A/2020 of 13 March, home working can be decided unilaterally by the employer or required by the worker, with no need for agreement between them, provided the job in question is compatible with home working.

• If the worker cannot work from home because of the nature of their duties, the company must continue to pay their salary during the period of exclusion. It must also monitor the state of the worker's health and arrange for their return to work as soon as they meet the conditions to do so.

Can an employee refuse to work if there is a specific risk or a case of infection in the company?

No. However, the company must take all appropriate measures to ensure it protects the health of every one of its workers.

What welfare benefits can workers have access to?

The Government has approved Order 2875- A/2020 which provides for a set of actions to plan and coordinate resources to minimise the economic and social impacts of the epidemic. This Order sets out the rules regarding the disease that apply to workers who are ordered into the situation commonly known as quarantine because of the risk of infection with the COVID-19.

Accordingly:

• Workers who are unable to work because of an order from the health authority will be treated as equivalent to workers who have been hospitalised for illness, so they will have the right to the applicable benefit. The daily amount of the benefit will be calculated by applying the following percentages to the reference salary:

a) 100% in the first 14 days they cannot work;

b) 55 % for the period between 15 and 30 days;

c) 60 % for the period between 31 days 90 days;

d) 70 % for the period between 91 days and 365 days;

e) 75 % for the period exceeding 365 days.

• This equivalence does not apply to workers who have alternative ways of working, in particular, teleworking or distance training programmes;

• This situation is certified using the form that is annexed to the Order.

• This form is the document that justifies the absence from work and it is communicated directly by the health authority to the security services to begin the process of paying the benefit;

• In applicable cases, the form is also used for the application for childcare or grandchild care benefit. The Order makes it clear that parents, grandparents and members of the household may provide care under the general terms of the law.

In addition to these benefits, the recently published Decree-Law 10-A/2020 of 13 March establishes a set of exceptional measures relating to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The measures adopted include the following on employments relationships:

 

 

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