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Refusal to work by employee due to COVID-19
- 18 June 2020
- Accounting
- South African Accounting Academy
The Department of Employment and Labour issued amended regulations in respect of OHS requirements and return to work polices that employers, who are permitted to operate under Alert Level 3, must adhere to.
Among these regulations is a directive published on 4 June 2020 that an employee may refuse to perform any work, including attending work, where “with reasonable justification”, it appears to the employee that performing such work will pose a serious or imminent risk of exposure to Covid-19.
Although a no-work-no-pay policy will apply, the employer may not take any disciplinary action against such an employee for exercising this right.
The difficulty with this issue is that “reasonable justification” will have to be determined on a case by case basis and creates a massive opportunity for abuse by employees who simply do not want to come to work.
Click here to download the relevant Directive.
Click here to access the amended Regulations.