How to treat absence for COVID positive home quarantine - Which leave is to be considered

An officer of our Company met his ex-boss who has been identified as COVID positive patient. Our management asked that officer to observe home quarantine for 7 days.
Needs clarification as to how to treat the absence of this officer. Which leave is to be considered and leave account to be debited.

Dear Peri, " Home Quarantine " consequent on physical contact with any Corona-virus-infected person is a medical necessity.
Therefore, in my opinion, these days should be treated as sick leave by the employer.

Hi,

So far, there is no clarity as to how to deal such kind of absence where the employee either has been asked by Management to self-quarantine or mandatory quarantine imposed by the respective local authorities. There is no prescribed guidelines so far even for government employees. As per the extant rules in most of the PSUs / Government Departments, self quarantine is allowed, where the member of the family or household is suffering from any contagious disease, such as, chicken pox, cholera etc. But COVID-19 being novel and unprecedented, no guidelines have so far been framed. I have already raised this issue here through a separate thread.

PSUs/MNCs/Organizations are dealing the absence of quarantine of employees differently as per their management' s decision. In some of the Departments, it is being treated Work From Home and others are taking leave from their employees to regularize the absence. There are others who are granting Quarantine Leave, which in fact is not admissible as per the current ruling.

The matter is still under examination by various organizations, including Government, but the issue is yet to be resolved to have a uniform view / call.

JSM

Hi,

So far, there is no clarity as to how to deal such kind of absence where the employee either has been asked by Management to self-quarantine or mandatory quarantine imposed by the respective local authorities. There is no prescribed guidelines so far even for government employees. As per the extant rules in most of the PSUs / Government Departments, self quarantine is allowed, where the member of the family or household is suffering from any contagious disease, such as, chicken pox, cholera etc. But COVID-19 being novel and unprecedented, no guidelines have so far been framed. I have already raised this issue here through a separate thread.

PSUs/MNCs/Organizations are dealing the absence of quarantine of employees differently as per their management' s decision. In some of the Departments, it is being treated Work From Home and others are taking leave from their employees to regularize the absence. There are others who are granting Quarantine Leave, which in fact is not admissible as per the current ruling.

The matter is still under examination by various organizations, including Government, but the issue is yet to be resolved to have a uniform view / call.

JSM

Dear R R Peri,
My question is to you, how you treat an employee when he is absent from duty due to any other illness?
You have to treat the Covid patient on same line. It is your internal subject with in your organisation and you need to resolve it.

It is undoubtedly leave with wages under medical grounds like in any I'll health reasons like typhoid or any road accident injury's leave on medical grounds.
Pls sanction the wages for the above period without any hindrances. It will be annoyed by law if you don't pay salaryfor that quarrentine period of covid 19 which is inevitable.. In saving other people alsofrom corona.

Dear R R Peri,
I read your query again now and have different view on the basis of my fresh understanding of the query.
The on-duty officer met someone connected to company who is identified as Civid positive patient. Therefore, you asked that officer to observe home quarantine for 7 days. In this case you have to treat the officer on duty. It is your moral responsibility too, though the home quarantine is not categorised as occupational disease.
Hope Umakanthan Sir will agree with me.

We are looking here only one aspect of the issue. There are many other aspects. I give another practical example here. I am currently based in Jammu. As per the SoP any one entering into the territory of Jammu whether by Road, Rail or Air is required to undergo COVID-19 test and on being getting negative the person is compulsorily required to be quarantined at Home for 14 days.

The problem here is anyone returning from Leave (outside Jammu) has to go for 14 days quarantine. Now, the issue is how to treat the absence of 14 days on account of mandatory quarantine as per the SoP.

Quarantine Leave as per the Leave Rules is not admissible. In such cases, whether this period be treated as 'on duty' even though he is not attending office? If this period is to be treated as 'special paid leave' or 'on duty' then the question arises here as to how many times the organisation can bear it as a 'paid special leave' or on duty. This situation is there for the last four months...!

In the absence of any specific guidelines from Government or statutory regulations till date , it is but appropriate to treat an employee infected with COVID -19 (and who is forced to be on home quarantine for 14 days) as on medical leave with full pay to the extent he is entitled . In case his sick leave quota is exhausted, the extra days of home quarantine to be offset against his PL or EL quota if any available . If the employer wants to demonstrate his is benevolence , he may at his option grant special leave with wages not exceeding 14 days to such employees forced on home quarantine an account of COVID -19
Panchsen
P.Senthilkumar
IR and Labour Law consultant
Former Corporate Head - IR ,MRF Ltd, Chennai
[Login to view]
9884009193

Dear Malhotraji,
Rules are not God-given. Depending upon the necessity created by extraordinary circumstances, the rule maker has to relax the rule if it does not cover any such particular situation which happens to be abnormal and unprecedented.
Quarantine is a compulsory medical protocol. Therefore, it forms part of the period of sickness for which leave is granted.
It is better to sanction leave of absence to the employee based on the reasoning spelt out by our learned friends Senthilkumar and Akhil.
Better to make amendment to the existing Leave Rules by adding provision for quarantine leave in case of pandemics.
After all, if there is a will, there is a way!