As the Covid pandemic starts to come to an end (wait a minute, the omicron variant kinda brought it back : P), many companies are starting to plan the “go back to the office.” Lots of readers are asking us: can my employer REQUIRE me to go back to the office? Yes and no. Here are a few considerations.
According to this article, while saying “I am scared to go back to work for fear of contracting Covid” is not sufficient, if the employee has a higher risk of contracting Covid due to certain health conditions, the employer cannot force the employee to go back. The same holds true if the employee herself or himself does not have a health risk but lives with someone who does.
Short of any health risks described above, the threshold is whether the employer is providing a safe and healthy workplace. If the employer is taking precautions and ensuring that the workplace is safe and healthy, merely fear alone is not sufficient for employees to refuse to report to work, especially if such work must be performed on-site physically. The employer has the right to determine where and how work is performed. See more details from this article here.
For office workers whose work can be performed remotely with efficiency, a request to work remotely may be a short or long-term solution. In the alternative, employees may also request a leave of absence for the time being to evaluate the situation later. For employers, such requests must be evaluated and granted fairly across the board to avoid any kind of discrimination.
If communication and accommodation cannot resolve the situation, then the last resort is to consider terminating the employees who refuse to report back to work. However, employers should proceed with lots of caution to avoid any kind of claims for retaliation, discrimination, and other causes of action. For CA employers, check out the laws and regulations here.
Gloria is the founder of Sleegal.ai, seasoned lawyer, business person and entrepreneur, determined to bring legal help to you at an affordable cost efficiently.
Gloria is the founder of Sleegal.ai, seasoned lawyer, business person and entrepreneur, determined to bring legal help to you at an affordable cost efficiently.
Drop us a note. We will get back to you within 1 business day.
Back in the day, ERP implementations used to be a nightmare for many companies. We've all heard of horror stories where millions of dollars were spent on planning and implementation, only to be told that the whole thing was a failure. But why is this still happening? With our extensive experience in ERP, we have identified the four main challenges that companies face when selecting and implementing an ERP solution. We are working to create a new generation of ERP systems that are easy to implement, intuitive to use, and adaptable to each organization's unique needs. Stay tuned for our new product roadmap!
Read moreA long time ago, we’ve written about the best and worst use of AI when it comes to lawyers. If some of you recall, our original “Sleegal AI” is a ChatGPT style chatbot to help people find lawyers. Before we know it, AI Generated Content (“AIGC”) has become the hottest topic in 2023. With this in mind and deriving from our understanding of AI, legal tech and self-driving cars, what is ChatGPT good and bad at?
Read moreWhen we talk to our potential customers in the field, especially the relatively new startups who are going through hypergrowth, we notice that there is a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about needing a procurement team at all. We have seen hyper-growth companies with a few thousand employees, some of which may even produce and sell hardware, who don’t have a procurement function at all. This is mind-boggling and very dangerous. Here are the common fallacies about whether and why a company needs procurement and our responses to them.
Read moreIn the past we have written extensively about why metrics matter for procurement leaders and why having a system to keep track of them is of essential importance. Today, I’d like to discuss one metric that procurement managers often overlook. Even in cases when they do realize the importance of this metric, it’s one of the metrics that’s more opaque and harder to keep track of. However, this metric is extremely important to keep track of. Keeping this metric under control and strict scrutiny will go a long way to not only cut cost, but increase bottom line. Here is why and how.
Read moreWe have written extensively about why there should be a “Chief Procurement Officer” position and why such leaders should have a seat at the C-suite table, rather than reporting to the CFO or an engineering officer. But how? Like most things in this life, it won’t get handed on a silver platter. I have many fellow procurement leaders who are struggling to receive acknowledgment and achieve a voice. Here are some suggestions.
Read moreUser experience designers tend to overthink and complicate things when it comes to product design. Our UX Design team collaborated to provide their top suggestions for enhancing efficiency and improving the user experience by avoiding these common missteps.
Read more