In the News: Coronavirus spurs legal and regulatory responses; Hong Kong introduces quarantine

Police stand guard outside the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, a temporary quarantine camp for the Wuhan coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday Jan. 23, 2020. Photographer: May James/Bloomberg

Lawyers issue coronavirus guidance for businesses

The coronavirus originating in Wuhan that has spread to at least 27 countries and territories has significantly disrupted business operations in China and beyond as employees have been ordered to work from home and numerous cities have been put on lockdown. Since the beginning of the outbreak, the legal community has been quick to provide legal advice to businesses including employment and contractual advice now that the public holidays for Chinese New Year have ended.

Jeanette Yu, a Shanghai-based partner at CMS, wrote that in Shanghai, employees' work during the extended holiday, whether from home or not, must either be paid for as overtime or compensated later in the form of leave. On the other hand, in Beijing, the period of extended holiday from Feb. 3-7 is designated as working days so no overtime pay needs to be arranged for employees' work during the period. She wrote in a separate alert that businesses may consider suspending operations even after the end of the extended holiday. If operations are resumed within one month, the company must pay employees normal salaries, according to a special coronavirus notice issued by the PRC Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Jan. 24. If business is suspended for more than one month however, employees are entitled to just living allowances depending on the city in question.