THE government has issued guidelines on handling matters relating to the outbreak of contagious diseases, including the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Human Resources Minister M. Kula Segaran said the Labour Department has been bombarded with questions on issues regarding the virus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

“The most common enquiry is regarding employers preventing employees from coming to work, especially those returning from countries with 2019-nCoV cases, such as China, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore,” he said in a statement.

He said employers are to take the following actions:

– Instruct employees to immediately undergo checks, at the employers’ expense, by a registered medical practitioner or medical officer as stipulated under Section 60F of the Employment Act 1955;

– Provide paid sick leave or hospitalisation entitlement during the quarantine period to employees who receive quarantine orders from a registered medical practitioner, regardless of whether the said employees are quarantined at home or in hospital. Employers are encouraged to provide extra remuneration to employees given quarantine orders that exceed their sick leave or hospitalisation entitlement;

– Provide full pay to employees who receive quarantine orders upon their return from business trips to countries with 2019-nCoV cases;

– Do not prevent employees from coming to work if no quarantine orders are issued. However, employers are allowed to instruct any unwell employee from coming to the workplace if paid sick leave is provided; and,

– Do not instruct employees in any way to use their annual leave entitlement or take unpaid leave during the quarantine period. – Bernama, February 6, 2020.