Navigating Employee Leave During COVID-19: What Options Should HR Consider?

I would like to know what type of leave should be sanctioned or provided to employees during the COVID-19 epidemic and the curfew period.

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As an HR professional, it is crucial to understand the appropriate types of leave that can be offered to employees during extraordinary circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic and periods of curfew. In such situations, employers may consider providing special leave categories like pandemic leave, quarantine leave, or remote work options to ensure the safety and well-being of their workforce. It is essential to review existing leave policies, consult legal requirements, and communicate effectively with employees to establish clear guidelines on leave entitlements during these challenging times.

Dear Vinod, it is not known on whose behalf the question has been asked. The nationwide curfew/lockdown imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak is only to contain a possible national disaster. Being unarmed, we are suddenly compelled to fight an invisible enemy. In this critical situation of life or death, both the employers and the employees have to cooperate with the governments to the fullest extent possible.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak has reached a global scale and as the research on finding a curative medicine remains in its initial stage, it is not possible now to ascertain when the lockdown would end or whether the epidemic will die on its own. In such a situation of despair and disaster beyond the control of the state as well as the employers, appropriate remedial measures need to be taken to avoid the loss of production for employers and the loss of earnings for employees in the short run to keep the economy of the country at a subsistence level.

Possible Remedial Measures

The first such possible remedial measure is permitting the employees to work from home. But its limitation is that its feasibility depends only on the sectoral classification of the industry like IT and ITE Services. It will not be possible in the manufacturing or face-to-face service sectors. The only option in such cases is to pay the workmen without work or to ask them to avail of the leave at their credit. But the principle that leave cannot be claimed as a matter of right by the employees automatically gives rise to an equally acceptable principle that leave cannot be unilaterally enforced by the employer.

State Government Advisories and Financial Constraints

I am given to understand that certain state governments have advised the industrial employers to pay for the period of lockdown despite no work. Large industries having reserves can do so for some time, but it may not be possible for medium or small-scale industries, which were already worst-hit by the economic slowdown. The possibility of the application of the Force Majeure clause or the frustration of the contract clause can be considered to reduce the wage bills if the situation worsens. But it cannot be applied to the workman category of employees. Therefore, my submission, in the backdrop of the unprecedented national lockdown situation, is that a consultative approach is required to implement layoff as contemplated under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.