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I have firsthand experience with this, albeit not at Intel. Several known positive cases have appeared Samsung's fab in Austin. Samsung mandates they not retu

I have firsthand experience with this, albeit not at Intel. Several known positive cases have appeared Samsung's fab in Austin. Samsung mandates they not return and quarantine at home. Before any of that, I'd already decided back in early March—when it became clear that things were more serious than people had been taking everything—that I'd stick around until we either temporarily shut down or when the reported cases start getting too close for comfort. A few weeks ago I sat down in the morning to find another company-wide email sent out at 9:00PM the night before (don't know why they hadn't also forwarded a copy of this one to my personal inbox that I could access from home, as with the ones before). In this case, symptoms were reported 4 days before, and now with confirmation having tested positive. This time it was on my floor, not far from where I sit in our open office. I sent an email that I was leaving and would not be returning for at least two weeks and pending further info about any spread. That was a Friday. I got fired over email (although not in those terms) at the end of the day the following Monday: Although you did not resign failure to report to your scheduled shift(s) has been taken as a voluntary resignation. We have gone ahead and ended your assignment for you. Please do not report back to the SAS site as your assingment here is done. This was all within the last two weeks. At the time, our group had been doing a piss poor job of observing both company and local rules about distancing. It had been less than a week since people around me had finally gotten moved to different workstations. It wasn't an availability problem, because (a) half the office was already a ghost town due to select folks ordered to work from home, and (b) the rest of the company had been been working spread out for something like a month already—but not our group. At the beginning of April, we were supposed to get a scheduled payout for earned PTO, but we received an email that due to COVID they were actually going to delay the payout. I had to jump through a lot of hoops alternately taking on extra days that I wasn't ordinarily scheduled and taking off other days to burn the PTO to give the effect of getting the payout for the hours I'd accrued.

stainforth 6y ago
Were you a contractor? If not, sounds like you have cause for unlawful termination. Bring it to them.
- gowld 6y ago
  Why is that unlawful termination?
  - brewdad 6y ago
    In any first world country, it would be. In the USA...meh.
  - Klinky 6y ago
    Unsafe work environment, may put the employer into OSHA compliance failures territory. Also there may be some local COVID-19 laws in place offering additional protections/mandates for employers to follow. That said it may be difficult to prove. Employee should demand answers to their concerns about work place safety, and the employer should answer them properly. This doesn't look like it was done. The employer knee-jerkingly firing the employee the next business day after being informed the employee was not abandoning their post for no reason also doesn't look good. They knew why he was not there, and I wonder if they made any attempt to reassure or reiterate their COVID-19 safety plan, and what the expectations of staff are. If the employee was not satisfied with the answer or application of the answer, then they should file a complaint with local employment board and OSHA, and possibly speak with a lawyer if they feel they are under threat of retaliation for reporting genuine work place safety concerns.
    - vondur 6y ago
      Generally, if you email your boss and just say I'm not coming in for two weeks without discussing it with anyone before hand, you are probably going to get fired. But if what this person says is true, and they are working in cramped conditions with people who are testing positive for Covid, then something is definitely out of whack with Samsung and needs to be dealt with.
      - bluntfang 6y ago
        Sure you can get fire, but they are framing is as voluntary resignation, meaning they are going to deny unemployment claims, which is really fucked.
fluffything 6y ago
Are you going to take legal action?
colechristensen 6y ago
The issue here is you could probably have not lost your job if you had made this a request to HR or your manager instead of a blanket email. There is a big difference between unilaterally announcing that you won't be coming to work and having your request refused and getting fired for leaving anyway.
- nickff 6y ago
  This seems correct. It looks like the employer interpreted the message as a type of ultimatum. In the face of such an ultimatum, they basically have no choice but to treat it as a resignation. The ultimatum is a very dangerous negotiating tactic, and generally harmful to long-term relationships. As an example, I recommend against posing an ultimatum to a spouse or partner.
  - pmiller2 6y ago
    No, they also have the choice to implement proper safety measures. You sound as if you believe the employer is entitled to abuse every bit of power they have over an employee. Edit: speaking of "ultimatums," what do you call a strike? Is it only an "ultimatum" (thus unacceptable) when one person does it, but not when a large group does it?
    - nickff 6y ago
      The problem is not the legitimacy of the issue; the problem is the approach. Grandparent comment said: "I sent an email that I was leaving and would not be returning for at least two weeks and pending further info about any spread." If they had said that they have concerns about safety, and requested an urgent (possibly remote) discussion, the employer would have more options. By telling the employer that they were leaving immediately, and not coming back until they felt something had changed, they force an immediate decision of either treating it as a resignation, or accepting and condoning unilateral actions by employees. Strikes are definitely ultimatums, though they generally have clearer objectives, and are usually preceded by a series of discussions. Strikes are not conducive to good relationships.

stainforth 6y ago

Were you a contractor? If not, sounds like you have cause for unlawful termination. Bring it to them.

gowld 6y ago
Why is that unlawful termination?
- brewdad 6y ago
  In any first world country, it would be. In the USA...meh.
- Klinky 6y ago
  Unsafe work environment, may put the employer into OSHA compliance failures territory. Also there may be some local COVID-19 laws in place offering additional protections/mandates for employers to follow. That said it may be difficult to prove. Employee should demand answers to their concerns about work place safety, and the employer should answer them properly. This doesn't look like it was done. The employer knee-jerkingly firing the employee the next business day after being informed the employee was not abandoning their post for no reason also doesn't look good. They knew why he was not there, and I wonder if they made any attempt to reassure or reiterate their COVID-19 safety plan, and what the expectations of staff are. If the employee was not satisfied with the answer or application of the answer, then they should file a complaint with local employment board and OSHA, and possibly speak with a lawyer if they feel they are under threat of retaliation for reporting genuine work place safety concerns.
  - vondur 6y ago
    Generally, if you email your boss and just say I'm not coming in for two weeks without discussing it with anyone before hand, you are probably going to get fired. But if what this person says is true, and they are working in cramped conditions with people who are testing positive for Covid, then something is definitely out of whack with Samsung and needs to be dealt with.
    - bluntfang 6y ago
      Sure you can get fire, but they are framing is as voluntary resignation, meaning they are going to deny unemployment claims, which is really fucked.

fluffything 6y ago

Are you going to take legal action?

colechristensen 6y ago

The issue here is you could probably have not lost your job if you had made this a request to HR or your manager instead of a blanket email. There is a big difference between unilaterally announcing that you won't be coming to work and having your request refused and getting fired for leaving anyway.

nickff 6y ago
This seems correct. It looks like the employer interpreted the message as a type of ultimatum. In the face of such an ultimatum, they basically have no choice but to treat it as a resignation. The ultimatum is a very dangerous negotiating tactic, and generally harmful to long-term relationships. As an example, I recommend against posing an ultimatum to a spouse or partner.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  No, they also have the choice to implement proper safety measures. You sound as if you believe the employer is entitled to abuse every bit of power they have over an employee. Edit: speaking of "ultimatums," what do you call a strike? Is it only an "ultimatum" (thus unacceptable) when one person does it, but not when a large group does it?
  - nickff 6y ago
    The problem is not the legitimacy of the issue; the problem is the approach. Grandparent comment said: "I sent an email that I was leaving and would not be returning for at least two weeks and pending further info about any spread." If they had said that they have concerns about safety, and requested an urgent (possibly remote) discussion, the employer would have more options. By telling the employer that they were leaving immediately, and not coming back until they felt something had changed, they force an immediate decision of either treating it as a resignation, or accepting and condoning unilateral actions by employees. Strikes are definitely ultimatums, though they generally have clearer objectives, and are usually preceded by a series of discussions. Strikes are not conducive to good relationships.