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Europe: Emergency Measures in the Field of Employment during COVID-19
Most countries in Europe have adopted extensive measures relating to employment to deal with this emergency situation relating to COVID -19.
Germany
An employee who is quarantined and unable to work from home should receive compensation from the employer in accordance with the provisions of the Protection against Infection Act. If a quarantine lasts longer than six weeks, compensation equivalent to the regular sick pay from the statutory health insurance would generally be paid from the seventh week onward.
A loss of working hours due to coronavirus and/or the associated safety measures may result in a claim for compensation for reduced hours or reduced productivity (Kurzarbeitergeld– short term work allowances) from the government. Retroactively, beginning March 2020, these grants are easier available for companies that want to realize substantial salary savings by sending their employees home on a temporary basis.
Employee leave due to COVID-19 processed as occupational accident
The Royal Decree-Law 6/2020, adopts certain urgent economic measures for the protection of public health entered into force on March 12, 2020. According to the Fifth Article of the Royal Decree, coronavirus casualties will be equated with occupational accidents for the purposes of collecting social security benefits.
As of March 11, 2020 employers can process the sick leave of workers infected with coronavirus as cases of temporary disability due to an accident at work. The equivalence is made only for the purposes of collecting Social Security benefits resulting from the leave. Isolation or contagion of the workers due to COVID-19 does not mean that it is an occupational accident per se.
Remote working
Remote work has been established as a priority measure against the temporary cessation or reduction of activity, in those companies where it is technically and reasonably possible and if the necessary adaptation effort is proportionate.
Reduction of the working day
The Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on extraordinary urgent measures to face the economic and social impact of COVID-19 states that employees who prove care duties with respect to the spouse or domestic partner, as well as with respect to family members will have the right to access the reduction of the workday, when there are exceptional circumstances related to the actions necessary to avoid community transmission of COVID-19. It may consist of shift change, schedule alteration, flexible work arrangement, split or continuous shift, change of workplace, change of duties or any other change of conditions that is available in the company.
As a result of the severe Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) outbreak in Italy, the Government issued Law Decree No. 18 of 17 March 2020 (“Cura Italia Decree”), which became effective on March 17, 2020
The obligation to preserve the employees’ health against COVID-19 infection falls within the general obligation of employers to preserve and protect health and safety at work.
The special parental leave to face the COVID-19 emergency may be granted to employees of the private sector (even if they have already crossed the thresholds set by the legislation for the use of the ordinary parental leave by one or both the parents). This special leave has a maximum duration of 15 days, to be used both on a continuous or non-continuous basis. However, in the latter case, the leave may be used on a daily basis only, not on an hourly one.
Increase of the Paid Leaves under Sect. 33, Para. 3, of Law No. 104/1992
There is an increase in paid leave for those employees caring for persons with serious disabilities as envisaged by Section 33 of Law no. 104/1992, which is to be used during the months of March and April 2020. This means that these additional 12 days will be added to the 6 days of paid leave (3 for the month of March and 3 for the month of April) already contemplated by Law no. 104/1992. Such an additional 12 days of paid leave may be used on an hourly basis and also on a continuous basis within the same month.
In anticipation of a potential economic slowdown resulting from the lockdown announced by the French government on March 16, 2020, the French Parliament approved an emergency law on March 22, 2020, called the “Emergency Bill to Combat the COVID-19 Crisis”
As per the Labor Code, the current minimum paid annual leave (after one year of employment) is five weeks. This duration may be increased by the applicable collective bargaining agreement.
Employees with a COVID-19 infection that has been confirmed by a doctor can receive the conventional sick leave benefits, plus a social security allowance. If an employee is quarantined, they are entitled to up to 20 days of benefits from social security. Infected employees are indemnified under regular sick leave ( which will depend on any applicable collective bargaining agreement and the employee’s length of service).
If an employee has to stay at home to care for a child under 16 years old, they may benefit from a specific medical/work leave option.
As of 16 March 2020, new and stricter rules have been imposed by the Dutch government in order to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 virus. The government’s measures will apply until 6 April 2020.
The employer can obtain permission from the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs to introduce a temporary working time reduction for salaried employees. The conditions for approval are as follows:
Infected employee
If an employee has been diagnosed with or is suspected to have contracted the virus, then the employer will have reasonable grounds to request them to stay at home. Employees will be entitled to paid sick leave as per contractual terms or, in absence of a contract, as per the law.
In accordance with the Dutch Civil Code, if a temporary or permanent employment contract is in effect and a worker becomes ill, up to two years of paid sick leave is provided at a minimum of 70 percent of the wages the employee last earned.
Luxembourg
Working from home can be imposed as a preventive measure for employees whose nature of work allows it.
In response to COVID-19, the Luxembourg Government has exceptionally authorized employees to take extraordinary family leave to care for minor children due to the closure of educational facilities.
The leave can be taken regardless of whether or not the child is quarantined. Employees should follow the below procedure for taking time off:
The employee can interrupt and split the leave as necessary.
Short-time work is a possible option to cope with a decline in activity that prevents the employer from employing its employees on a full-time basis. Short-time working can be requested by any company in difficulty, if its activity is significantly reduced (including up to total interruption of activity), due to the coronavirus.
The new legislation enacted in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis (“Crisis Act“), allows employers to order any employee employed to perform his/her work determined in the employment contract remotely. The regulations concerning the assignment of remote work will remain in force for 180 days from the effective day of the Crisis Act, i.e., from 8 March 2020.
Quarantined Employees
Slovakia
On 11 March 2020, the Slovak Republic declared an “extraordinary situation” in the territory of the Slovak Republic, with the effective date as of 12 March 2020. Employers are required to follow best practice guidance in this situation, such as:
Romania
The Czech Republic
Named as the Anti Virus relief plan, the Czech government put in place a system of state aid designed to safeguard the employment and business environment in the country
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Irish Government has implemented a range of restrictions:
If none of the options above is available, and the employee cannot arrange for paid leave from his employer, they can apply for one of the statutory schemes below.
Under the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (COVID-19) Bill, employees will not be able to claim redundancy during the emergency period if they were laid off or put on short-time work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergency period set out in the legislation is 13 March 2020 to 31 May 2020. This period may be extended.
Employees who are on sick leave are entitled to sick pay or state sickness benefit and employees who are quarantined are generally also entitled to full salary during the quarantine. The general sickness benefit rules state that employers have an obligation to either pay salaries during illness or pay sickness benefits during the first 30 sick leave days (the employer period). At the end of this period, the employer can claim sickness benefit reimbursement from social insurance.
Effective 27 February 2020, an amendment to the Sickness Benefits Act was put in place. The amendment extends access to sickness benefit reimbursement for employers, for COVID-19 related situations. The rules on the employer period are suspended temporarily so that reimbursement is provided to employers for paid salaries or sickness benefits already from the first day of absence if the absence is caused by COVID-19.
The provisional rules will automatically expire on 1 January 2021.
On 31 March 2020, amendments to the Labour Code related to downtime were adopted by the Parliament. Article 47(1) (2) of the labor code states that an employer may declare downtime for an employee or group of employees when the employer is not able to provide the employee with the contracted work for objective reasons not due to the employee’s fault. If the above-mentioned requirements are not met (i.e. there is no work due to the decrease in the market), the employer is able to announce the downtime based on the Article 47 (1) (1) of the Labour Code and pay as follows:
Employee’s salaries during the downtime cannot be lower than the minimum monthly salary. Employees in quarantine are entitled to receive sickness benefits for up to 14 calendar days amounting to 62.06 percent of gross salary. In such a case, an employer has to pay for the first 2 working days as per the work schedule.
Proposed amendments to wage subsidies will be taken up in the Parliament’s session on 7 April 2020.