COVID-19 and SAFE AT WORK PROTOCOL

SAFE WORK AT WORK PROTOCOL MEMO

Purpose:              To provide a reference in creating and maintaining a “Safe at Work” environment.

Background:       COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, has forced a change in the work environment and in what employers must do to provide a safe and healthy work environment for their employees.  New government-imposed regulations will be imposed, and strict compliance will be required.

This is not am entirely new concept. The food service and medical industry have experienced such requirements for years. But similar requirements and regulations will now be implemented for all businesses.

Expectations:    The new workplace will be one which provides a “Safe at Work” environment for employees.  The new standard of requirements will be for employers to be responsible to provide a safe and healthy work environment that at a minimum meet newly imposed government regulation.  Health and Safety inspections will become a new standard policy and any companies found not in compliance will be subject to citations, fines, and possible cease of operations until they can demonstrate compliance.  Again, similar to that found in the food service and medical services industries.

Regulations and requirements will be on all levels of government with the implementation and carrying out of these on the local level.  Each state, county, and city requirements will vary depending on population, industry, and needs.

Businesses should expect, at a minimum, to sanitize the work environment multiple times a day.  The following is a list of anticipated requirements:

• Sanitizing of common and high traffic areas during hours of operation
• Hand sanitizer stations at all points of entry as well as throughout the workplace
• Face covering requirements and to provide disposable face coverings
• The use of HEPA filters in heating and air conditioning systems
• Checkpoints at entrances to multi-use office buildings, hospitals, theme parks, or any place where there are large turnovers of foot traffic and/or patrons
• Quarantine areas for certain facilities to stage affected persons
• Extended “shields” or barriers between employee work stations
• Regulation of employee gathering areas for social distancing
• Staggered work hours to reduce the number of employees at any given time
• Employee ID card system to track all employee movement within the workplace
• Computerized “log-in” system for all non-employee patrons, guests or visitors
• Safe at Work signs posted in plain sight and highly visible
• Video surveillance systems

Additional and more severe requirements may include:

• Track and Trace systems for all employees, work staff, vendors, suppliers, etc.
• Track and Trace systems for all products including packaged food products
• Robotic sanitization equipment
• Sanitizing rooms or chambers

The best approach for any business right now is to be prepared for anything. Expect initial requirements and regulations to be very strict and to ease back as we move forward. Many of the new regulations will become the “new normal” and will stay with us. Many others will be paired down and even removed entirely but made ready for re-implementation upon the next possible viral pandemic threat. The world as we know it will be forever changed and society’s approach to dealing with major viral infections will be forever changed.