General information on Continued Remuneration/Wage payments:

In general, the principle "no work, no salary" applies. However, there are exceptions to this principle, such as the employer's default of acceptance. If the employer does not wish to accept the employee's duly offered work, this is considered to be default of acceptance. In principle, the employee does not have to catch up for the refused work performance (subject to exceptions) and he is still entitled to continued remuneration.

If the employer is unable to offer a sufficient workload, he is in default of acceptance of the employee's willingness to work and the employer is obliged to continue to pay salaries. However, the employee has to take into account of what he is spared of by being prevented from performing his work.

In case a company closes in fear of infection, the employer is also obliged to continue to pay salaries. In general, the employee does not have to catch up on missed work, but there are exceptions, for example in the event of very short plant closures. In such cases, the employee has to take into account what he is spared of by being prevented from performing his work.

In the mentioned cases, the employer therefore basically bears the operational and economic risk for the effects of COVID-19.

There is no right to continued remuneration if the employee is absent from work in fear of infection without any official order from the authorities. In the case of unjustified refusal to work, the employer also has the right to terminate the employment without notice and, if necessary, even to claim compensation.

Illness:

In the case of an infection with COVID-19, the employee is prevented from performing his work, but, as with other illnesses, the employee is entitled to continued payment of his salary. The duration of the continued payment of salary depends on the number of years of service of the employee.

In Liechtenstein, every employer (subject to exceptions) must take out compulsory health insurance for his employees. If the illness lasts longer, the insurance company will pay the illness benefit ("Krankengeld") after a certain waiting period. According to the law, this illness benefit must amount to at least 80% of the salary.

Home Office Services:

If an agreement to this effect has been made in the employment contract, the employer may oblige the employee to provide home office services. In addition, the employer may also order home office based on his right to issue work-instructions.

However, this only applies under the condition that appropriate facilities are available to the employee. In addition, the employer must provide the employee with the necessary aids for the performance of his or her work duties and must also bear the corresponding costs so that the work can be reasonably performed from home.

Quarantine:

A distinction must be made between continued remuneration in the event of quarantine ordered by the authorities and continued remuneration in the event of quarantine ordered by the company:

The employee is entitled to continued remuneration in the event of officially ordered quarantine for a limited period of time, unless the employee is no longer on probation. Due to the customs agreement with Switzerland, the provisions of the Swiss Epidemic Act (Epidemiegesetz) are applicable in Liechtenstein. According to the Epidemic Act, if an authority officially orders a quarantine, the Principality of Liechtenstein must refund the salaries of its employees to the employer.

If quarantine is ordered by the company, the employee is also entitled to continued remuneration. In this case, the Epidemic Act does not apply.

Even in the case of quarantine, the employee has to take in account what he spared of by being prevented from working. In addition, the employer can oblige the employee to use the home office under the above-mentioned conditions.

Care of sick Relatives:

Employees are entitled to care leave ("Pflegeurlaub)" of up to three days per case of sick family members living in the same household. The purpose of care leave is to organise the care or assistance of sick or injured family members. For these 3 days, the employee is entitled to continued remuneration, but the employer may demand a corresponding medical confirmation.

Childcare due to the Closure of Schools:

In this case, the employer is obliged to continue to pay remuneration for a certain period of time if the employee is prevented from performing work through no fault of his own because he has a legal obligation to care for his children. This special leave is intended to be used to organise childcare.

Vacation:

In general, it is the employer who determines when the employee is entitled to take his vacation. The employee's wishes and (private) circumstances, especially with regard to school-age children, must be taken into consideration. However, the interests of the employer take priority. If, for example, the employee takes vacation time contrary to a legally correct working-instruction of the employer, this can be an important reason for dismissal without notice. By determining the length and duration of the vacation, the recreational purpose of the vacation must not be made impossible; the employee must therefore be given sufficient time to plan the vacation.

Agreed vacation may only be changed by the employer if there are serious reasons for doing so and if the employee has been informed in proper time. In any case, this change must be justified by urgent and unforeseen operational needs. The employee must be informed of the postponement as soon as possible. If the employee has to postpone his holidays due to an urgent operational situation and if he suffers damage as a result, the employer must compensate this damage.

Furthermore, there is no obligation for the employee to take unpaid vacation; this is only possible if there is an agreement between employee and employer.

Overtime-Working:

As COVID-19 continues to spread, employees could be absent and the employer could be dependent on overtime. If overtime-work is justified by the circumstances and if it is possible and reasonable for the employee, considering his personal situation, the employee is in principle obliged to overtime-working.

It is important to note what has been agreed upon in individual contracts with regard to compensation for overtime-working, as the agreement to exclude compensation is generally permitted by law.

Termination:

In general, labour contract law is based on the principle of freedom of dismissal. This principle is limited only by provisions on protection against dismissal in terms of content and time. In addition, ordinary termination does not require any special reason.

In the event of dismissal due to illness, blocking periods apply during which the employer may not give notice of termination; a notice of termination given during this period would be invalid. A notice of termination is possible after the end of the blocking period. The blocking period depends on the years of service: In the first year of service, the period is 30 days, in the second to fifth years of service 90 days, and from the sixth year of service onwards 180 days.

COVID-19-Restrictions: What cross-border-employees have to consider:

Many employees commute daily from their foreign residence to their workplace in Liechtenstein, especially Austrian and Swiss nationals. In the Principality of Liechtenstein, the place-of-employment-principle applies. Employees are obliged to have compulsory social insurance (AHV, IV, FAK) if they work in Liechtenstein.

Due to the restrictions issued by the Austrian Federal Government to stop the COVID-19-pandemic, such as curfews and the reintroduction of border controls, many companies grant home office services to their employees. This can lead to unintentional infringements with social security law, because any employee who has previously worked in Liechtenstein and now carries out his work from Austria, Germany or Switzerland is pursuing a so-called parallel activity in several Member States. Due to the activity abroad, however, this is not yet a posting ("Entsendung")

To avoid duplication of responsibilities, Regulation (EC) No 833/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the coordination of social security systems applies throughout the EEA and Switzerland.

If the employee pursues his activity in two or more Member States (e.g. partly in Liechtenstein, partly in Austria), the legislation applicable depends on in which State the employer is established, provided that the employee does not pursue any substantial activity in his State of residence (Art. 13 (1) (b)). The threshold of significance of employment is exceeded from 25%. The assessment period to determine whether a substantial part of the activity has been carried out in the State of residence is 12 months. Employees who are employed by Liechtenstein companies and who currently have to carry out part or all of their activities in another EEA Member State or Switzerland are therefore in all probability not subject to any other Member State under social security law. Only long-term restrictions could achieve this.

The subsumption of home office services under the exception of Art. 12 (1), which would allow the possibility of posting employees from Liechtenstein to EEA Member States for a maximum of 24 months or to Switzerland for a maximum of 60 months, is only possible if the employer maintains a branch in the receiving state or carries out significant activities in the receiving state, i.e. the employer provides services for contractual partners.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.