[Klinky]

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]

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.

[romwell]

Not only that, but Samsung also informed them of covid cases on their floor via an email they could only read at work.

"By the way, your office is infected, and we didn't want to tell you this before you arrived here. Sorry not sorry."

This is criminal, and should not be excused.

[bluntfang]

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.

[jonas21]

Many employment agreements have a clause that says that if you fail to report to work for X days without an approved leave you're considered to have voluntarily resigned. Based on the language, I assume that's what happened here.

[gizmo686]

There is a push by senate Rebublicans to include liability protections for employers. Assuming it gets passed, then depending how it is worded, there may be no case against employers in this type of circumstance regardless of arguements over other worker protection laws.