As I began writing this article, I recalled one of my many character flaws. I have little time or tolerance for "experts" whose only talent is identifying problems but lack the intellectual curiosity or depth to offer possible solutions.

I pointed out several challenges to business continuity because of the covid19 pandemic in my last article, so now I present some possible solutions.

Regarding quarantine pay, many are now expecting companies to maintain the pay of workers who may be quarantined more than once for 14-21 days at a time.

When the pandemic first started in 2020 most companies decided to pay workers under quarantine. Let’s consider that as of December 30, 2020, there were 378 active cases and 7,132 total positive cases. Fast forward to January 2022 we have active cases between 16,000-19,000 and positive cases at more than 108,000.

According to the Central Statistical Office’s data for 2020 our employed labour force stood at 603,000. If 75 per cent of the total positive case numbers of 108,088 were from that workforce, then about 15 per cent of workers across the board have tested positive for covid19.

This covid19 positive workforce will obviously have primary contacts, who will also be quarantined, then we can say about 25 per cent of workers would have been somehow affected. The accuracy of these mathematical assumptions can be substantiated in the figures recently released by MTS which has a workforce of about 6,000 employees. It has experienced a whopping 30 per cent quarantine rate, losing over 36,000 man-days at a cost of over $7 million.

I have estimated that the national economy has lost over $200 million in unproductive paid wages due to workers being in quarantine over the last two years.

I must point out that companies are not legally obligated to pay workers in primary or secondary contact quarantine. This is considered an ex-gratia payment. For those workers who are ill, sick leave will be utilised and sick days outside of the company’s policy could be treated as extended pay or ex-gratia. Monies could be recouped through the NIS.

As the data suggests above, with a 4,000 per cent increase in active cases throughout the country, companies are now financially challenged to keep making these payments. I therefore advise my clients, that for those jobs that can be performed at home or offsite, they can treat quarantine absence as work from home. Where this is not possible the company is therefore not obligated to maintain full pay to such workers.

No one predicted these developments back in 2019, or before, when negotiations for collective agreements were being conducted, or when companies were creating and implementing their leave of absence policies. As such, there existed no provisions for "pandemic leave." Accordingly, companies are not obligated to pay for non-positive quarantines.

Now that the expense is proving to be unsustainable, unions are pushing back on any decision to stop or reduce payments. My advice is to revisit pandemic policies and practices and make th