Question

Can you be fired/disciplined if you refuse to go to work? (The actual question here was: What if there is no legitimate reason not to come to work, but an employee still refuses to show up. Could this result in discipline? Also, it is not clear, but I assume the employee is not showing up because of fears related to COVID-19.)

Based on the lawyers' answers to these questions, do you think there is sufficient legal protection for employees who may not want to show up for work due to COVID-19 fears? Explain.

Answer 1

Employee can refuse to go to work due to unsafe working environment in terms of lack of social distancing, lack of availability of mask, sanitizers and other essentials that could protect him or her from getting infected to corona virus. It is also the lack of safe and sanitized transportation system, that can make employee not to go to the work.

But, if all the safety conditions are met and still employee is not going to work, then employer has to first counsel the employee and help him or her assure the best of safe practices already being implemented that can make employee assure of his or her safety. If it is not resolved, then employer has to send a letter of warning to report to work and if not, he or she can be disciplined, fired and another person can be employer in his place within a stated date. If employee still does not report to work, then employee can be disciplined or removed from the work and another suitable candidate can be hired.

So, the legal protection is there, but in limited sense. Once the conditions and safety concerns are resolved, then there is no any protection, unless specifically mentioned by the government.