However, in the field of Labor Law there is a legal vacuum, which generates uncertainty in employers and legal insecurity when making a decision.
After the meeting last Tuesday, of experts from the scientific society and the Ministry of Health, they recommended a new type of isolation for:
- Close contact of positive case, without symptoms, with two doses of the vaccine: without isolation taking preventive measures and carrying out a mandatory test on day 3.
- Close contact without vaccines or one dose: 10 days of isolation
- Positive case: 7 days of isolation with two doses and 10 days with one or without vaccine.
Companies must comply with current recommendations and may sanction employees who do not comply with warnings and/or suspensions.
Now, until December 31, 2021, this cost suffered by companies was covered by ART, since COVID 19 was included as an unlisted disease and now it is not. It was presumed to be a “occupational disease” and the ART covered it by decompressing employers, a situation that does not happen at present and concerns employment and the world of SMEs, which are the engine of the Argentine economy.
Different assumptions employers must make:
- Close contact with a suspected case external to the company or outside of it.
These are cases in which the worker had close, direct contact with a person who is not a co-worker (family member, partner, etc.). In this case, it is alien to the employer and the worker must give notice and it depends on the vaccination chart that he has, are the days that he will not perform tasks and the days of work will be deducted. The company does not have to bear that cost.
- Suspicious case of a worker.
The company must arrange for isolation, in accordance with current recommendations, and request the worker and/or workers for the corresponding medical certificates and analysis results. The worker must submit to a swab as many times as the employer requires for the safety of their co-workers.
- Confirmed case of a worker.
You must comply with the current recommendations of health experts for your isolation, taking into account that, if you do not have the two doses of vaccine, the employer may or may not deduct the days of absenteeism. It is discretionary by the employer in use of the faculties of Ius variandi granted by the Labor Contract Law 20,744. In the case of having two doses applied and testing positive for Covid-19, the employer will pay 70% for each day of absenteeism, withholding 30% for being a cause beyond the employer’s control, without being obliged to assume 100% of the cost of a misfortune that lacks a legal platform.
Recently, the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT) approved the individual use of self-assessment tests based on the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
This self-test is not valid at the labor level, but the worker must report the positive result to their employer so that they can determine the steps to follow.
Companies must comply with current protocols and may sanction employees who do not comply, provided that their rights are respected.
In this way, legal uncertainty is eliminated and the legal vacuum is filled, making the outcome of an employment relationship predictable in the face of refusal to complete the vaccination schedule.
Source From: Ambito
