The world of work will never be the same post the Covid-19 outbreak after the rude awakening the virus has impacted on the world.
Over the past month, since the outbreak hit the country, a number of companies have been forced to strategise, downsize as well as force their employees to take pay cuts and just generally do everything within their power to survive the pandemic.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a Human Resource expert, Esther Masese, shed light on a number of tough decisions that companies had to grapple with even though they are not properly covered by the law giving rise to the need for legislation to cover national indefinite disasters.
Redundancy
Most companies have resorted to laying off their workers with some citing redundancies, which does not really apply in this case. Legally, redundancy is when an employer has to fire a worker as part of a longtime decision after their service is declared superfluous.
In the case of redundancy, the employer has to part with several payoffs including severance and pay for a certain number of months.
The recent layoffs, however, are necessitated by lack of revenue and in several cases, the employer sends employees on an indefinite leave which is not covered in the constitution. Unpaid leave must be for a definite number of days.
"The thing is, they are justified (to fire) from a financial perspective. Let me give an example of an events company, it is not an essential company and there are no events whatsoever. Even if we get out of the pandemic, events are so secondary that the company will be dealing with other issues like pay before looking to hold events.
"According to the law, that is downsizing which is like retrenchment and it has its own policy where you have to pay one month. It is not a must to pay severance as well since nowadays once you pay NSSF and NHIF for staff, you do not have to pay them severance," Stated HR consultant Esther.
Pay Cut Consultations
Up until the pandemic, consultations between employees and employers were not a common occurrence and the laws guard the salaries of workers.
However, with the pandemic forcing people to work from home, that means that manpower hours have reduced as well as revenue and in order to survive cutting costs is paramount. The law, however, lacks a clause championing for ways to reach an agreement between an employee and an employer in times of a national disaster.
"Someone will argue that they do not have the money to pay some perks. Some are sending their workers on unpaid leave. They should give their employees reduced salaries because the manpower has reduced. Everyone is looking for survival strategies around this thing. It is also very new so you can't decide what is right or wrong.
"According to the law, an employer can change the employment terms because of natural causes. This was not in the control of anyone. This is also something so new and there are details that are not captured in the labour laws. The clause covers for people to go for unpaid leave or retrench but has not gone into details to address each cover," argued Esther.
"The law does not allow people to be sent on unpaid leave for so long. Most companies are actually gambling with the unknown," she added.
Give priority to Laid-off workers.
In the case of the workers sent on paid leave indefinitely, the constitution is not clear on how they should be treated when they return to the company.
The pandemic might last as long as a year while employees are on paid leave and it is not clear whether the time off would count within the number of years that the employee had been working at the company.
Esther argued that it might be challenging for companies and the employees alike since after the employees have been sent on leave, some might not be willing to return to the companies that they had been forced to leave with no pay.
Treat home as a workplace
The Occupational Health and Safety Act does not recognise the home as a possible workplace but after the Covid-19 outbreak cools down, the mindset regarding that possibility will have changed immensely.
It has been argued that employers should be urged to increasingly see the home as a work environment and should include that in their company policy with aides such as helping their workers acquire appropriate furniture as well as safety measures including things like facemasks in an attempt to make the environment conducive to work in.
