The employer should pay the employee his salary during this period of absence. The employer can make arrangements for the employee to work from home.

For more advice on issues relating to leave of absence, see the Tripartite Advisory on Workplace Measures to Tackle Influenza A (H1N1-2009) at www.mom.gov.sg/flu

The employer can ask an employee returning from holiday or any non-work trip to see the doctor or stay at home and look out for flu symptoms. These arrangements can be considered:

1. Exercise flexibility, including letting the employee work from home.

2. If the employee went to an H1N1-affected area, the employer may grant him a special leave of absence, with or without pay, based on the circumstances of the individual company and workers. The employer can ask the employee to take annual leave, treat the absence as sick leave, grant time-off or no-pay leave if annual leave has been used up.

By mutual agreement, employers and employees/unions could also agree on other arrangements to share the costs incurred by the leave of absence.

Employers are encouraged to be flexible and compassionate. For more advice, see the Tripartite Advisory on Workplace Measures to Tackle Influenza A (H1N1-2009) at www.mom.gov.sg/flu

In serious situations like this, employers may have to redeploy workers or temporarily lay off those requested to stay away from the workplace.

The implementation of such measures should be carried out in consultation with employees or unions.

Employers are encouraged to adopt a flexible and enlightened approach in implementing flexible work arrangements, as well as allowing employees to take annual leave, childcare leave or unpaid infant care leave, or to grant no-pay leave if they have used up their leave entitlements.

Employers and employees should understand each other's concerns and resolve matters themselves. They may also approach the MOM Contact Centre (6438- 5122) for clarification and assistance.