The Employers and Manufacturers Association has suggested employers pay quarantined workers sick leave, despite the murky legal situation.
Though employers were not legally obliged to pay staff when they weren't ill and weren't at work, EMA chief executive Alasdair Thompson advised businesses to pay those quarantined, if they could afford it.
"Employers are only obliged to pay staff for sick leave when they are genuinely off work from illness as defined in the Holidays Act," he said.
"Of course employers have the discretion to pay employees sick leave if they are not ill, but the situation some employers are now facing has never been tested in law."
He recommended employers rely on medical professionals to order a quarantine, instead of deciding to close or send people home themselves.
EMA advised employers to pay sick pay to quarantined staff members if they had sick days available.
If they had no sick days left, employers and staff could discuss making holiday leave entitlements available.
"Swine flu is expected to affect an employee for between two and four days, so employers and employees will usually work out what is sensible for them in the circumstances specific to them and the legal technicalities will be less important."
Mr Thompson said calls by unions for employers to pay regardless of circumstances were "naive".
"While it's obviously true that employees are not at fault in the case of quarantine, it's equally true employers are not at fault."
