Vietnam Covid 2019 Outbreak - How to deal with employees confirmed to be positive for Covid-19?
For any employee who is tested being positive for Covid-19 and is known to the employer, the employer could require the employee to take sick leave in accordance with the Social Insurance Law 2014 to maintain labor safety and hygiene at the workplace.
That said, this may not be necessary, since the Government requires all Covid-19 confirmed patients to be put into mandatory quarantine and treatment in a hospital.
Depending on the period of social insurance contribution and sickness status, employee positive for Covid-19 may be entitled to sick leave period of up to 30, 40, 60, 180 days or longer. If the sick leave entitlement is exhausted but the employee still does not recover, the employee can be entitled to five to ten days off for recovery subject to agreement between the Trade Union and the employer.
During the Covid-19 medical treatment, the infected employee will enjoy allowance from the State Social Insurance Fund. No payment from the employer is required in this case.
Recently, the MOH has categorized Covid-19 as an extremely dangerous infectious disease. Accordingly, the infected employees could enjoy free health care in accordance with the Law on Infectious Disease 2007.
This post is written by Nguyen Hoang Duong and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu.