What is Quarantine Leave?
Quarantine leave is a Special Leave Type which is to be applied to employees who have been ordered by the Superintendent of Public Health or other authorities to Quarantine. Although this has been mostly utilised for quarantine periods related to COVID-19, an employee may be asked to quarantine for other reasons.
How to show Quarantine Leave on the Payslip?
Quarantine Leave is a Special Leave Type and its entitlement is not limited per year, and is instead entitled to any period that is determined by the quarantine order. Thus, the employees are to receive in full pay, any amount of hours they would have worked during the quarantine period.
The Quarantine Leave must be applied for, using the Leave Application process as is outlined here: Adding a Leave Application. Make sure to select Quarantine Leave as the Leave Type when applying, so that this is correctly displayed in the payslips.
Since the entitled amount is based on quarantine orders, this leave type is not impacted by any yearly entitlement, and you can add this leave without any balance restriction from Buddy.
What is the Difference Between Quarantine Leave and Sick Leave?
The quarantine leave can only be utilised if the employee is on a quarantine order, while the employee tests negative. If the employee tests positive for Covid-19, then the employee would instead make use of the entitled sick leave. In the case where an employee is first on quarantined order while negative, but then tests positive at a later date, the employee would be put on sick leave from that stage on, until the employee is no longer sick.
Employees should present a medical certificate for any periods in which they are considered on sick leave.
Example
Below is an example to help illustrate a couple of different scenarios in practice:
Carmen tests positive for Covid-19 and is thus put on sick leave. However, her husband Frank and their child Matt have both tested negative, but they will still quarantine as per the quarantine order received. For that reason, Frank and Matt will be put on Quarantine Leave.
After 10 days, the family goes for another test, and this time Matt and Rita both test positive, while Frank remains testing negative. In this case, Matt stops utilising Quarantine Leave and instead is put on Sick Leave. On the other hand, Rita continues to utilise her sick leave, while Frank remains on quarantine leave (as he receives an extended quarantine order).
Despite Frank's quarantine period being lengthened, the employee is still to receive the full pay for the full quarantine period.