On 28^th February 2020, the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare issued a guideline for employers and employees to collaborate in adopting measures to slow down the Covid-19 pandemic (“Guideline”) as follows:-

Employers have been asked to:

1.   educate employees of the outbreak of Covid-19 and introduce preventive measures guideline against Covid-19;

2.   provide alcohol jells, soaps and cleaning materials including cleansing area for employees and customers;

3.  take the temperature and check the health condition of employees before work if employers have a large number of employees working in a crowded place;

4.   request the employees not to travel to the high-risk countries and ask employees who return from such countries to be checked and quarantined;

5.   allow employees to take sick leave, holiday leave, leave without pay, no work or pay, or other leaves during the quarantine period or the treatment period;

6.   cease all or part of the business operation if there has occurred a risky situation, such as having numbers of sick employees; and

7.   inform the Labour Inspector if employees are infected or likely to be infected with Covid-19.

Employees have been asked to:

1.   get treated if suspected of being infected with Covid-19 and immediately inform the employer if the test result is positive; and

2.   strictly follow the order and guidance of the Contagious Disease Control official if the employer is under 14-day quarantine. 

We will monitor the situation and keep our readers updated.

Too see the archive of our past newsletters and articles please click here.