The World Health Organisation (WHO) has labelled the current H1N1 swine flu as a pandemic. This requires companies here to have a business continuity plan with specific measures to manage large absences or even temporary shut downs. Some of the issues to address are as follows:

1. Employment laws, health and safety measures, employment contracts and policies will still apply during a pandemic.

2. In some circumstances, HR may direct individual employees not to attend work if they have reasonable grounds to believe an employee has H1N1 and may place the health of other employees at risk.

3. HR may request employees to undertake "covering" duties or work from another location like the home. The ability of the company to make such "requests" will depend on employment contracts and collective agreements.

Employers should review their current business continuity processes, especially crisis steps, communication plans and travel policies.

Subscribe | Email Feedback

To subscribe to the HRSINGAPORE^® Community, send a blank email to: HRSINGAPORE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

* When you subscribe kindly use your individual company email e.g. yourname@yourcompany.com.

Your subscription is always free!

For details, click on http://hrsingapore.net/community/

If you are still unsure, speak with Anthony Peck at (65) 6337-8016 or (65) 8268-9316.