Do employers have to pay workers during lockdown? What the law says and what changes are needed
8 April 2020
The very foundation of the employment relationship is about the rendering of services by an employee, and payment in return for those services by an employer.
The current COVID-19 crisis has caused employees to stop rendering services to their employers. Therefore, the question is whether those affected employers are obliged to pay those employees who are no longer rendering services to them.
The answer is simply that the employment relationship becomes suspended. Simply put, there is an intervening impossibility of performance which leaves both the employer and employee unable to meet their obligations.
As a result, the suspension of an employment relationship has dire financial consequences for both the employer and the employee who will not be receiving income as a result of the lockdown.