Legal
LEGAL
COVID-19: WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS Despite the fact that things seem to be moving in the right direction as far as the pandemic goes, the coronavirus is still raising all sorts of legal questions. Such as, what are your employee rights when it comes to Covid? Is a tenant entitled to rent reduction because of Covid? And what’s the situation with privacy? Our Zuidas lawyers give us the lowdown.
Paul Vestering Partner Labour Law at Stibbe Can an employee demand to continue working from home after the government lifts this measure? Have you encountered this question from any companies? Employees were allowed to ask to do their work somewhere else already, but they have no entitlement. An employer can reject such a request, giving reasons. We call this a ‘right to ask and duty to consider’. A proposed law on working where you want may change that in future, but it hasn’t been adopted yet. I advise mainly large employers, and they’re working on their post-Covid policies already. Instead of awaiting new legislation, often they’re introducing their own working-from-home policy. We help them with that. In most cases it ends up being a combination of working from home and at the office, with basic rules that apply company-wide, to ensure clarity. It will be interesting to see how whote all find a new balance together, post-Covid. I think it’s likely we’ll go hybrid at Stibbe as well, sometimes working from home but also regularly at the office. Can employees be forced by their company to get vaccinated, or to show proof of vaccination status? What is Stibbe’s own policy on vaccination? Fundamentally, employees cannot be forced to get vaccinated, nor may employers register who has had an injection and who has not. The only possible exception is in higher-risk professions, such as medical employees who work with vulnerable patients. Let’s hope the vaccination rate gets high enough on a voluntary basis that Covid-19 won’t be a problem in the workplace any longer. If not, employers may have to continue imposing additional protective measures.
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