Companies Tighten Quarantine Measures After Sudden Reversal on Remote Work Plans

On the 9th, as the number of new COVID-19 cases reached 1,316, breaking records day after day, citizens lined up at the screening clinic set up at the Gangnam-gu Public Health Center in Seoul to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporters Heungsun Kim and Hyunjin Jung] As the government announced that social distancing in the Seoul metropolitan area will be applied at Level 4 for two weeks starting from the 12th, major companies are tightening their internal quarantine measures again. They have rapidly shifted their guidelines to increase the telecommuting rate to the maximum and prohibit events and private gatherings.

According to the industry on the 9th, Samsung Electronics is maintaining a rotating telecommuting policy at about 30% excluding essential personnel, while requesting employees to refrain from activities with infection risks such as business trips, dinners, and group training sessions. They are operating a workplace task force (TF) for COVID-19 response and are known to raise the quarantine manual to the highest level depending on the trend of confirmed cases. Some workplaces are reducing congestion by increasing the number of commuter buses and adjusting the number of passengers.

Hyundai Motor Company also communicated guidelines to employees prohibiting dinners and restricting domestic and overseas business trips due to the rapid increase in confirmed cases. Since the 7th, SK Group’s holding company and SUPEX have switched to 100% telecommuting. SK Hynix recently announced limited permission for some sports facilities and in-house training but has suspended these and closed sports facilities again to block places with potential internal infection risks.

LG Group expanded the telecommuting rate to 50% for one week starting from the previous day across the group. Initially, they planned to ease the telecommuting rate to 20% from the 1st of this month, but as confirmed cases increased mainly in the metropolitan area, they decided to maintain the previous 40% rate and, judging the quarantine situation to be serious, set it even higher. They also decided to maintain existing guidelines such as refraining from domestic and overseas business trips and limiting group training sessions to 20 people.

In addition, Doosan Group plans to continue telecommuting except for essential commuting personnel based on current metropolitan area workplaces, switch or prohibit internal and external training and events online, ban domestic and overseas business trips, and refrain from external work meetings. LS Group also stated, "We plan to minimize dinners, gatherings, and face-to-face meetings for the time being."

According to the government and quarantine authorities, under Level 4 social distancing, private gatherings of three or more people are prohibited after 6 p.m., and guidelines such as staggered commuting and lunch hours for workplaces excluding manufacturing, and a recommended telecommuting rate of 30% will be implemented.