Employers Laying Off Staff During COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic led to a global economic downturn. While companies are finding themselves in challenging spots, employees are one of the most affected groups.

Looking at the data, over half of the companies are no longer hiring. Moreover, many decreased employee hours laid them off, reduced their pay rates, or cut headcount without an intent to rehire.

Without a clear end-point in sight, employees wonder what to do next.

Furloughs, Reductions in Force, Layoffs

These three terms describe companies' actions in recent months intended to save money by reducing payroll costs. However, the implications of each differ for the affected staff.

Furloughs are alternatives to layoffs. Employers require people to work fewer hours and take some unpaid time off. The rule might apply to all employees or only ones that don't provide essential services.

Layoffs happen when there's not enough work for an employee to perform. In this case, the employer intends to rehire the person when the situation changes. You can collect unemployment benefits while, in most cases, keeping some company coverage.

A reduction in force is the worst-case scenario for employees. It happens when employers eliminate your position without planning to reopen it.

What Are the Alternatives?

Ideally, companies will resort to alternative measures to reduce costs. Actions taken so far include reducing employees' 401k matches and delaying retirement funding.

Another avenue businesses go down is slashing payroll. While not ideal, it's better than losing the position for most people. Some companies are opting for gradual salary reductions, focusing most on higher-paid employees.

However, if it's not in the form of furloughs, legal and financial implications are considerable. Companies contemplating significant reductions must follow federal and state laws in giving advance notices.

What About Essential Workers?

Essential workers were generally able to keep their jobs even during the worst periods of the pandemic. An issue arises when an employee needs to self-isolate, though.

If a staff member tested positive or has symptoms, they must self-isolate for at least ten days and everybody else in their household for two weeks. The cycle continues if another person in the home starts displaying symptoms.

The UK law now requires employers to provide sick pay to employees:

• infected with the coronavirus,

• suffering from its symptoms,

• living in a household struck by the virus

The US laws only allow up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the FMLA, though, recommending flexible deals with employers.

Moreover, it seems that very few states provide support for people ordered to isolate in a test and trace manner.

Providing Proof to the Employer

Generally, isolating employees need to follow the usual protocol for reporting sickness in their workplace.

However, it's not always the case that you have the right documents. It seems that the entire situation requires much more flexibility than is currently given to the employees.

Moreover, malpractice occurs, and it's not the case only in the US. As an attorney explains at https://diamondlaw.ca/blog/how-canadian-law-discourages-patients-from-suing-physicians-for-medical-malpractice, not every bad result equals negligence.

Still, errors do occur, potentially resulting in poorly conducted tests. As a result, employees can't always take advantage of their sick leave.

The Bottom Line

Overall, the circumstances are dire for American employees today. Although more employers are coming up with flexible plans to allow workers safety regarding their health and job, it's still a matter of grave concern.

Employees should read up on where the law protects them. Ideally, they should also develop a contingency as we enter the seventh month of the crisis that doesn't seem to be dying down.