If you are in quarantine yourself, this can have consequences
Photo: Justin Paget / Digital Vision / Getty ImagesThe holiday in Catalonia was happy, but the awakening afterwards was unpleasant: Returnees from risk areas are quarantined, they are not allowed to leave their apartment, not even to go to work. However, it is not so easy for everyone to work from home. If you stand on the assembly line in the screw factory every day or sit at the cash register in the supermarket, then working from home is not an option.
Even if the job from home would be possible in principle, the employer must generally give his okay to work from home. And now? Does a quarantine apply like a sick leave? Or do you have to take a vacation? Or can even be fired who does not take up the service?
For whether and how employees in quarantine will continue to be paid without being able to work, the reasons for which they are in quarantine are decisive. Financially, employees who cannot work in isolation from home are treated as if they were ill through a claim for compensation. According to the Infection Protection Act, there is a right to loss of earnings in the first six weeks. The compensation, according to the Infection Protection Act, is based on the loss of earnings. If the employee does not return to work after this period, he or she will receive sick pay.
The decisive factor is the reason why you are in quarantine
The amount of sick pay per calendar day is based on the employee's regular income. Generally this is 70 percent of the gross wage, but not more than 90 percent of the net wage. One-off payments such as Christmas bonuses are also taken into account. The boss can get this money back from the state. "The employer is something like a paying agent here," says the Düsseldorf specialist lawyer for labor law, Jens Niehl.
If the supervisor does not pay the compensation despite the quarantine, the employee can claim the money from the state. Which authority is the right contact person differs from state to state: In North Rhine-Westphalia it is the regional associations, in Hesse the health authorities, in Bavaria, on the other hand, the individual district governments.
The reason why you are in quarantine at home is decisive for whether you also receive wages during the quarantine. If the employee has to be in isolation because he was in a risk area for his vacation, he is responsible for this himself (10 AZR 99/14). "If the employer learns that the employee has taken vacation in a risk area, then it is quite conceivable that he or she will not receive payment in the event of illness, the incapacity for work was provoked himself," says labor lawyer Niehl. The same applies to compensation the Infection Protection Act for quarantine without illness after vacation in a risk area.
130 countries that it is better not to travel to at the moment
If the boss cannot accept a high-value job because the employee is absent due to self-inflicted quarantine, then a claim for damages against the employee is also conceivable: "Right now you just can't go anywhere without a head," says Niehl.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) works with the federal government to determine which countries fall under the risk areas. There are currently 130 countries to which it is better not to travel for vacation. The EU country Luxembourg is also currently on the list.
The important thing here is the question of the mutual protection, consideration and care obligations of employer and employee: The employee has an interest in going back to work as quickly as possible. However, if he returns from a risk area, he has to be in quarantine for two weeks as long as he cannot present a negative corona test that attests to being healthy. If the employee cannot present this test, a two-week employment ban applies - unless he or she can easily work from home during this time.
"Right now you just can't go somewhere headless"
Jens Niehl, specialist lawyer for labor law
The employee should be farsighted when planning their vacation this year. If you are planning a trip to a country that has not yet been classified as a risk area by the RKI and you hear about hundreds of new infections in the media in the past few weeks, then you should not go there if you do not want to risk quarantine and the loss of your compensation claim. "Nowhere does it say that it is only at fault if the Robert Koch Institute warns against it," says labor lawyer Niehl.
more on the subject
Out and about in Corona times: "Your employer cannot tell you where to go" An interview by Florian Gontek
Vacation Time: How to Write the Perfect Out-of-Office NoteBy Michelle Gielan
Labor law: Can I go on vacation despite being on sick leave? By Bastian Midasch
If the holiday country becomes a risk area only during the stay, the specific individual case is decisive as to whether the employee will continue to receive wages even in quarantine. If he or she drives through a risk country and on a day trip to the gas station, but has not noticed that the country has been on the RKI list of risk countries for two hours, that changes the situation. "This will probably be quarantine through no fault of one's own and will have no consequences for the employee if the employee were to be quarantined at all," says Niehl.
It looks similar if you can credibly convey to the boss that you have made your return trip immediately after naming the holiday home as a risk area - in this case too, one would rather assume a quarantine that was not the employee's own fault. "However, there are no decisions on this yet. It always depends on how the employee reacts to a change in the risk assessment in the individual case," says Niehl. A healthy dose of caution is therefore still required when planning vacation.
