Would it be fair to reprimand employees ignoring government imposed lock down procedures?

Question

A friend of mine asked me to ask this on his behalf.

A company he manages employs ~900 employees. The company does not perform essential services and has thus been forced to shut down during a 21 day government imposed lock down to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The company is paid these employees in full for the lock down period and all employees were instructed to stay home. These employees were even paid early as to allow them to stock up for the lock down. It has now come to his attention that certain employees are ignoring the lock down and in his view are disobeying a direct company instruction.

Would it be fair to institute disciplinary action against these employees?

Edit: Our lock down rules state that only movement for essential supplies are allowed such as food & medical supplies/treatment.

These employees referred to are visiting friends and hosting social events which is currently illegal and may result in a prison sentence of up to 6 months. These employees are getting away with it due to the fact that the South African police is heavily understaffed and have a fairly high percentage of corrupt officials.

Answer 1

Would it be fair to institute disciplinary action against these employees?

It might be the right thing to do, for their own good. Depending on the work and external culture and how much you value them as workers.

A lot depends on the action taken. Personally I'd ring them and tell them off. Because any discipline is best done now not when they get back to work suitably repentant later or find themselves locked up or sick. Discipline after the fact is not a better option in my opinion and they should run out of money well before they restart work.

Many people in some cultures and locales cannot handle lump sums of money responsibly and will go on a drunken spending spree disregarding any consequences if someone they regard as an authority figure doesn't give them a swift kick.

I've never been to South Africa, but apparently they have 30% unemployment. This gives employers a lot of power and responsibility. We have similar problems, but no one is handing out lump sums because it's a given that a chunk of people will immediately go off the rails (some still do but they run out of money pretty quick). Too late for your friend though.

At any rate this is a judgement call only your friend can make. Hopefully he makes a good one based on good reasons. If he wants to do it out of pique then thats a personal reason I would not think a good one. If he wants to do it out of concern for his workers then that would be fine in my books. If he wants to save the country, the World and the Universe, then that is just a weak rationalisation, because disciplining them after they return is too late.

Answer 2

To be honest, what his employees do outside of work hours is their own business (provided it's not negatively impacting the company).

The best he can do is send a company wide email reiterating the government guidelines but unfortunately (as Tymoteusz said) this is not a work issue so it would be inadvisable to do more than that.

Side note: Not sure how the lock-down is being enforced over there but the police are dealing with it in the UK and I know some people are reporting others who are not following guidelines.

---

Update:

Lots of discussion about this one in the comments so I thought I'd just add a little bit here.

• I am not getting into a discussion about legality. I am not a lawyer and weather you can fire/reprimand someone for doing something illegal outside of work is out of the WP SE scope and probably highly region specific.
• I was assuming OP was saying they were going out in the evening. I do get where people are coming from with the work hours thing. The boss could tell employees they must stay in during work hours but people are still going to go out in the evenings and it might even push some who are feeling they are being controlled to rebel more. In short, I doubt it will improve things.

Answer 3

After a telephonic conversation with the company union rep, my friend decidedthe following:

Having a job means performing tasks the company asks of you (provided it's within your abilities and the law) and you being paid to perform said tasks - That much pretty much everyone can agree on.

In South Africa, during an event such as lock down, no work no pay rules apply where employees cannot work from home. Many employers thought it well to use annual leave during lock down so employees still have an income, however it is not required by law to implement such a solution.

In this case the employer gave the employees a task and is paying them to perform said task. The task was simple - stay home and observe lock down protocols. (To minimize risk to your health and disruptions to the company once lock down is lifted.) and you'll still get paid.

By doing this, the company was being courteous to employees.

Since many of the employees ignored the company's instruction to stay home and observe lock down rules, the following was suggested by the union rep:

All employees who purposefully decided to ignore lock down protocols (and where the company can prove this) will be given the choice of having the lock down days where employees ignored lock down protocols being docked from annual leave or as unpaid leave.

Also a company wide email/sms was sent out stating that should any employee contract covid-19 as a result of purposefully ignoring lock down protocols of they will be charged with gross negligence and will be subject to a disciplinary hearing.

Answer 4

The company should mind its own business, which does not include monitoring the whereabouts of its employees during non-work hours.

disobeying a direct company instruction

Are they coming in to company premises? Then, yes. For all other cases, no. An even better solution is to lock up the building so that no one can enter.

---

A small and interesting detail is that no one, except for a court of law, can force you to stay at home. This is important to remember in times of stress, even when your local, normally de-clawed up-and-coming representative wants to be seen as "doing something" and "taking action" and ends up undoing two centuries worth of civil liberties. Everyone is managing their own personal risk as they deem fit, and that is their right.

Answer 5

Employers generally can't tell you what you can do outside work. The exceptions are typically prohibition of acts that have a negative effect on the operation or the reputation of the company. If one were to go out their homes during the lock down in the company's uniform, and the employer would learn about it, they could be subject to disciplinary action, as breaking the law in a uniform can damage the employer's good reputation.

If a company wants to interfere with the private life of an employee, they pay LOTS of money. This happens often with top tier athletes, e.g. they can't do extreme sports to protect the employers investment.

However if the employees should stay at home for on-call duty, that could mean they're not allowed to leave their homes during these hours – except for work reasons (if that applies).

Answer 6

If these employees are paid to stay at home (and do nothing) then they are still under orders of the company. If the company feels strongly about it, they can give employees a choice: Stay at home and practice social distancing, on full pay, or just stay away from the office, do whatever you want, on zero pay. In that case, disciplinary action would be totally appropriate.

I am currently paid to work from home, full time, and not to come in the office unless absolutely necessary. I’m not ordered how to live my life, except the standard thing not to put the company into disrepute, and not to risk my health needlessly. And not to get arrested by police - which is entirely possible.

PS. After update to the question: Quite implicit in my work contract is “don’t do anything to go to jail for six months”.

Answer 7

In addition to telling the employees that they should be on call at their home during paid time, you can also inform them that an internal investigation will be carried out regarding employees who get arrested for breaking the quarantine, and appropriate disciplinary actions will be applied to them if they are found to have knowingly damaged the business by disobeying the order to stay at home during paid time.

You will need to actually conduct an investigation and check with a lawyer before applying a disciplinary action to an employee (especially before firing them). But, depending on circumstances, this may not be an empty threat: in some cases you will be able to reprimand or dismiss an employee for deliberately getting prison time. If there's solid proof that illegal activities were carried while the employee was on the clock, the risk for such an employee to be dismissed for misconduct is very high.

Hopefully even a remote possibility to get a prison sentence and losing their job will be enough to convince most people to respect the rules.

Answer 8

These employees referred to are visiting friends and hosting social events which is currently illegal and may result in a prison sentence of up to 6 months.

"Mind your own business" does not apply to illegal and imprisonable activity, as we have it here. Illegal activity of employees is very much an employer's concern, which is one reason why background-checks are performed in the first place. Depending on your local laws you may have the right to fire or otherwise discipline these employees based on misconduct, either with or possibly without a formal conviction. Consult a lawyer.

Answer 9

As these none isolating employees will put other employees at risk when they return to work, maybe require all employees to have been in isolation for 21 days before they return to work, and not pay them for any delay in being able to return to Work.