Monday, June 28, 2021
Attention workers
No money in quarantine for travelers returning?
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Vacation is just around the corner or has already started. Unfortunately also the delta mutant of the coronavirus. Now, among other things, there are calls for stricter quarantine rules for travelers. Read here what financial consequences this can already have for employees on vacation.
The list of corona risk areas in Europe is getting shorter and shorter. Thus, a relatively unclouded summer vacation for employees in the travel year 2021 could actually be possible. If it wasn’t for the delta mutant of the coronavirus to spread. In this way, Portugal has just been classified as a virus variant area. Now the political demands for quarantine and consistent double tests on return for vacationers are increasing. The latter should be reasonable for travelers. Provided it is well organized.
In a quarantine, things look different. What is the current legal situation for traveling employees who involuntarily have to do without their colleagues for a few more days immediately after their vacation? Questions and answers on the topic:
What basically applies to continued payment of wages in quarantine?
Travelers who return from vacation and go into quarantine did not have to take a vacation last year and also did not have to fear loss of earnings. Section 56 of the Infection Protection Act contains a compensation scheme, according to which the state pays for loss of earnings if someone “is subject to or is subject to a ban in the pursuit of his previous employment and thus suffers loss of earnings”.
Quarantine periods that are ordered due to illness of an employee, like all days of incapacity for work due to illness, are not to be offset against the annual leave. If the employee is not acutely ill, but has been quarantined on suspicion of a possible infection or returning from a risk area, he is not unable to work and is therefore still obliged to work.
If he does his work from home or from the place of quarantine, he will continue to receive his remuneration from the employer. If this is not possible for him, he will receive compensation in the amount of his previous net salary. In this case, the employer can later get the amount back from the authority that ordered the quarantine. A set off against his annual vacation does not take place here either.
What does it look like for returnees from a risk area?
For the quarantine obligation of the traveler, it is irrelevant whether the destination country was already designated as a risk area before entering the country. A returnee is therefore subject to the respective quarantine or test obligations.
However, during the quarantine there is also a claim to compensation for loss of earnings within the meaning of the Infection Protection Act, if a returnee from an area that was only declared a risk area after his arrival has not, contrary to public recommendations, independently brought himself into a situation due to which he then has to be quarantined.
The situation is different if the employee is at fault. So he knows in advance that he is going to a risk area. Employees who spend their vacation specifically in a risk area and who have to “isolate themselves” in quarantine at home after their vacation return are not entitled to continued wages or compensation.
What if the employee falls ill while on vacation?
Here, too, the employee must not be at fault for his illness. They are particularly at fault if they have voluntarily traveled to a corona risk area and thus accepted an infection. If an employee falls ill while on vacation while traveling to a risk area, he should therefore consider whether he would like to call in sick and forego his salary in order to save his vacation or whether he would prefer not to call in sick but continue to take vacation take and receive his salary accordingly.
Are there any threats under labor law sanctions who have to be quarantined after their vacation in a risk area?
An employee does not have to fear sanctions in the true sense of the word, such as warnings or dismissal. However, he has to accept the loss of his remuneration if he has freely decided to travel to a risk area. There are no further sanction options. An employer cannot require an employee to refrain from traveling to a risk area. As an expression of general personal rights, everyone must ultimately be able to decide for themselves whether they want to take on the increased risk of corona infection when traveling to a risk area. Accordingly, an employer cannot sanction it retrospectively if an employee makes the free decision to travel to a corona risk area and therefore has to be in quarantine.
Does the employee have an obligation to provide information to the employer about his or her whereabouts while on vacation?
Usually an employer has no legitimate interest in asking an employee about their vacation plans. Due to the legal consequences of a trip to a risk area, something else applies. The employer has duties of care for the health of his other employees and customers, so he must be allowed to obtain information as to whether an employee carries an increased risk of contracting Covid-19.
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