Legal matters during the epidemic: What to do if the employee refuses to return to work

During the epidemic prevention period, some legal matters were known

□ Our reporter Fan Tianjiao

Is it possible to terminate a labor contract if an enterprise employee is treated in isolation? Consumers are infected during travel, should travel agencies bear responsibility? Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, various localities have successively adopted effective measures such as postponed return to work, traffic control, and closed community management. At the same time, it also brought some legal confusion to the masses and needed to be answered.

What to do if employees refuse to rework

During the epidemic prevention and control, the issue of employment of enterprises received public attention.

Some netizens reported that because of the infection in the community, their buildings must be isolated and observed at home, and they could not rush back to the company to resume work. When the quarantine was lifted, they rushed to work in the field and quarantined again. It was a long delay, and they were worried about whether Was dismissed.

Some of this worry seems to be a reality. "I received a call from the company, and I was one of them." Some netizens said that the company had given one month's notice in advance and paid one month's salary.

Is it possible to terminate a labor contract for an enterprise worker who has been infected with new coronary pneumonia during the epidemic? Zhang Fei, a lawyer at Beijing Bank of China (Hefei) Law Firm, believes that it cannot. She introduced that according to the relevant notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, patients with new coronary pneumonia, suspected patients, close contacts during their isolation treatment or medical observation, and due to the government's implementation of isolation measures or other emergency measures have failed to provide normal Employees of laboring enterprises shall pay remuneration to their work during this period, and shall not terminate labor contracts with employees in accordance with Articles 40 and 41 of the Labor Contract Law. During this period, if the labor contract expires, it will be postponed to the end of the employee's medical period, the medical observation period, the quarantine period, or the emergency measures taken by the government.

However, due to the impact of the epidemic situation, it is true that the company has difficulties in production and operation. Zhang Fei suggested that enterprises can stabilize their jobs by adjusting wages, rotating shifts, shortening working hours, etc. through consultation with employees, and try not to lay off workers or reduce them.

Some netizens posted on the Internet for help. The company postponed to resume work on February 9th. During the period, employees who did not return during the period were treated as leave. After returning, I had to quarantine for 7 days, no salary, and a taxi to and from work. Because the cost was too high, I decided not to go back. "Is the company's personnel saying that we should give a dismissal, is this reasonable?" Netizens asked.

Zhang Fei believes that due to the special needs of the epidemic, employees can be required to return to work in accordance with legal regulations and company rules and regulations. If employees refuse, the company can handle them according to labor contracts and enterprise rules and regulations. However, considering traffic control in many places, for employees who did not return to work due to the epidemic situation, the enterprise may give priority to arranging annual leave for employees. During the annual leave, employees enjoy the same salary income as during normal work.

How to deal with travel contracts

The Spring Festival holiday used to be the peak period of travel, but this year's epidemic situation turned into a home for everyone. For tourists who have purchased tourism services or traveled before the epidemic, many of them have encountered a dilemma.

Some consumers complained that they signed up for a trip abroad with a travel agency years ago, but did not expect the epidemic to strike, and they were not allowed to travel after being notified by the travel agency. He asked the travel agency for a full refund, but the travel agency refused to bear the cost of the hotel reservation.

In contrast, tourists who are "stuck" in the middle of the journey are even more embarrassed, especially those who go abroad, and some directly encounter flight cancellations and are unable to return home. According to reports, as of February 9, the Civil Aviation Administration has coordinated nine charter flights to take back 1,107 Chinese citizens stranded overseas.

Not only are tourists frustrated, but travel agencies are also losing a lot. Not to mention the weak season, they also face a series of legal disputes. What about tourism contracts affected by the epidemic? How to deal with the epidemic situation during travel? Become a common concern of travel agencies and tourists.

"The epidemic situation should constitute force majeure in the legal sense and lead to the inability to realize and perform the tourism contract. Both parties to the contract can terminate the contract." The judge of the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhu City, Anhui Province said that after the contract was terminated, the travel agency should be organized by the tour operator. After deducting the non-refundable expenses paid to the land agency or the performance assistant, the remaining amount will be returned to the consumer in full. If the organization still pays the expenses after the contract is terminated, even if the expenses are reasonably justified, they shall be included in the balance and returned to the tourists.

If an epidemic situation is encountered during the tour, the travel agency shall immediately stop the itinerary in accordance with the local epidemic prevention and control instructions, the two parties cancel or change the contract, and take timely security and resettlement measures to assist the tourist to return to the place of departure or to a reasonable place. The necessary protection costs such as masks due to epidemic prevention are borne by the travel agency, the cost of food and accommodation is borne by the consumer, and the cost of the return trip is borne by both parties.

If consumers are infected with the virus during travel, the judge reminded that it is necessary to comprehensively judge the issue of responsibility from medical diagnosis, the source of the disease, whether the travel agency has taken necessary and reasonable security measures, whether the patient's self-protection measures are appropriate, and other factors. If the travel agency fails to perform the necessary security measures and other contracts and statutory obligations, consumers have the right to claim rights in accordance with the relevant laws of the contract or tort liability. If the travel agency has fulfilled the necessary security measures, there is no civil liability.

How to execute cases involving enterprises

"Hello, I'm the judge of the Executive Bureau of the Tongguan District Court. I just invited you to the group through a WeChat friend, mainly for your case with a construction company in Tongling and Huang ..." Tongling City, Anhui Province The District Court Executive Judge Chen Tanwen communicated in the WeChat group about four disputes over sales contracts, and the enforced persons were the same subject.

During the epidemic prevention and control, through related case inquiry, Chen Tanwen found that the executed person had multiple cases in Tongling Intermediate Court and the property was already in sight. He then requested to participate in the distribution of the execution funds and obtained the property of a construction company in Tongling. Allocation plan table. Chen Tanwen communicated and coordinated with the four applicants and their litigation agents through WeChat, and everyone agreed to settle the dispute.

The execution of the case itself is difficult to find, and the property is difficult to find. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, will the execution of the case be stopped, and opportunities for investigation and control will be missed, which will become a concern for many applicants, especially enterprises.

"Enforcement will not stop." Many court executives told reporters that although enforcement work needs to be carried out prudently in accordance with the law during epidemic prevention and control, non-special circumstances do not go out to handle cases, the implementation hearing is suspended or postponed in principle, but implementation work will use The network execution investigation and control system carries out security investigation and control and execution investigation and control, guides parties to perform online, and promotes case settlement. For cases that require cross-regional execution, the local courts will be assisted in handling matters through the implementation of the command management platform.

At the same time, taking into account the special needs of epidemic prevention and control, the implementation of measures such as the investigation and control of the property of hospitals, enterprises and personnel involved in epidemic prevention and control will be suspended. On January 27, the Taihe court received an application from a medical technology company that produces masks and other epidemic prevention products to unblock bank accounts. The judge handling the case immediately mediated the parties and facilitated the parties to reach an agreement to fulfill their obligations in full. After that, Taihe Court released the company's bank account through the online investigation and control system. The local government then took over the company and started to produce enough epidemic prevention supplies with the capacity to produce more than 10,000 masks per day.

In addition, for the cases of enterprise lawsuits that have been accepted, during the epidemic prevention and control period, the courts have taken measures to postpone the hearings. If conditions permit, they can adopt the "cloud trial" model. Relevant personnel of the enterprise can pay attention to the court's dynamics and communicate with the sponsor in time to understand the litigation arrangements.