Are You Ready For A Compulsory Leave Without Pay?

The world economy seems to be on lockdown. Stock markets are collapsing, businesses are closing down, huge losses are being registered and people are on the verge of losing their jobs.

It seems the deadly Coronavirus will bankrupt more people, render more people jobless than the ones it is likely to infect and kill. But, it is here and we have to deal with it.

Businesses around the world are advising employees to “work from home.” Some businesses, however, are asking their employees to take compulsory leave “without pay” until such a time that “things will cool down.”

In Kenya, things are not different. Employees in the hotel industry are feeling the hit. The majority of them have been asked by their employers to stay at home and wait for further information on when they will resume work. Meanwhile no pay.

In Mombasa, the county government of Mombasa banned nightclubs from operating for the next 30 days. Employees were sent home with no pay for the period the clubs will remain closed. (Most employees in clubs are paid on a daily basis.)

In Nairobi, Galileo, and Alchemist, some of the most popular social joints have suspended their operations and employees have been sent parking as the virus continues to sweep across the country.

Some business owners say they are able to pay their employees for the first one month of this pandemic and “if it persists, we shall have no otherwise but ask them to take leave without pay until things come back to normal,” says one employer.

More than 88 percent of businesses in Kenya are small-medium enterprises (SMEs) that have employed 86 percent of the population and contributing at least 45 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

With the current economic lockdown, most SMEs in Kenya are affected. No sales. No cash and, therefore, no way of sustaining employees for long.

Are you ready to stay at home without pay?

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