SINGAPORE companies are adopting flexible approaches to quarantine in the face of the rising number of people infected by the H1N1 virus and the growing list of countries affected.
The Straits Times spoke to 27 companies to ask how they were dealing with the pandemic and whether they quarantined staff returning to work from trips or vacations to H1N1-stricken areas.
Those who responded included Deutsche Bank and Citigroup, as well as CapitaLand, Tangs, StarHub, Raffles Medical Group and the Singapore Exchange.
Most reported that they were not making quarantine compulsory for employees returning from personal visits to affected areas, but advised them to stay at home for seven days if they felt unwell.
This policy is broadly in line with Ministry of Manpower (MOM) guidelines, which state that for non-work-related travel to an area with sustained community spread of H1N1, the employer may request that employees stay away from work.
On the list of affected areas currently are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Panama, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
MOM's guidelines on how employers should treat time off for quarantine - as annual leave, sick leave or an unpaid holiday - are flexible.
The guidelines state that employers 'are encouraged to be flexible and compassionate when implementing such arrangements'.
Whether employees must use their personal leave during quarantine depends on the individual policies of companies and, in some cases, the employee's job.
HSBC does not require staff to take annual or medical leave for a quarantine.
JPMorgan Private Bank allows all employees the flexibility to work from home so they do not need to use up their leave, said Ms Jan Richards, who heads the private bank here.
But some firms require staff to use their own leave if they are quarantined after a holiday.
At City Developments and Hong Leong Holdings, it is compulsory for staff to be quarantined for seven days and the duration is counted as annual leave if the trips were taken for personal reasons.
If brokerage UOB KayHian's staff return from an affected area, they must stay away from the office for two days.
According to an internal UOB KayHian memorandum, if a H1N1 case is confirmed on the flight but the staff member is not considered a close contact and not issued with a home quarantine order, the employee should still stay away from the office on his own leave.
Human resource chiefs at some firms said that because the flu affected so many countries and was likely to last for some time, it was impractical to quarantine all returning employees.
One example is FJ Benjamin Holdings, which said that it did not impose mandatory quarantine orders on its staff travelling back from affected areas 'as the number of countries hit by the pandemic was too numerous'.
'In addition, with the infection already in Singapore, imposing a quarantine on staff travelling may not mitigate the risk of infection,' said its spokesman.
All the companies contacted said their H1N1 policies were working well so far.
But some HR chiefs acknowledged pockets of unhappiness among employees who felt it was unfair to force workers to use their annual leave for quarantine.
'There is some buzz in the HR community about staff raising this type of objection. Some have even checked the legal position, which is unclear,' said one HR director.
This is why many companies are keeping it flexible.
At Raffles Medical Group and Singapore Exchange, for example, staff need not consume annual leave and can be deemed to be working from home with approval from their supervisors.
