Post-lockdown back to work health and safety guidelines

Post-lockdown back to work health and safety guidelines

New guidelines from the government are set to be formally released this Sunday and will likely include plans to help get some people back to work. The draft government plan seen by the BBC, outlines steps to ease the coronavirus restrictions in some workplaces 

The draft guidelines are likely to include:

Reduced hot-desking

Continued and altered Social Distancing

Additional hygiene procedures

Temperatures taken before entering buildings

Physical screens / Zoning

Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Doors kept open wherever possible

Temperature controls for physical spaces

What could these measures look like?

Guidance for how these measures should work in practice will be important but they’re not simple solutions and there are other considerations that employers will need to bear in mind when implementing them.

Reduced hot-desking – Ensure there is a clear audit trail of where people sit and spend their working hours in case they do contract coronavirus but have shown no symptoms. In this case additional deep cleaning regimes can be implemented, and relevant other personnel can be quarantined if required. This will also limit how many people come into contact with items such as keyboards, mice, phones etc thus reducing the risks of infection.

Continued and altered Social Distancing – Premises will need physical markers, changes to layout such as more space between desks, staggered shifts to prevent bottlenecks in car parks and rest areas and also minimise the number of people each person comes in contact with.

Additional hygiene procedures – Door handles, communal areas and bathrooms to be cleaned every hour. Hand and equipment sanitizers, reminders to wash hands and suitable disposal of PPE stations.

Temperatures taken before entering buildings – This is already being implemented in several working environments, such as Amazon for example. However, will this extend to being able to produce and evidence a log of temperatures to be recorded for a period before being allowed to consider returning to work or being allowed onsite in the case of contractors? This form of “passporting” is a reality we will soon be facing.

Physical screens – To divide desks and workers where appropriate social distancing cannot be achieved and give confidence to the workers moving forwards.

Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – Will face masks be the norm? Questions will be raised by unions about who is responsible for providing these things to workers and how will the disposal of them affect the environment. If all workers are to require gloves, overalls, masks etc this could have a serious impact on sourcing appropriate materials for key workers such as in care homes or the NHS.

Doors kept open wherever possible – These measures are looking at reducing the number of surfaces people have to touch, however, how does this impact Fire Safety in the workplace, as well as security and other wellness considerations, such as temperature controlling etc.

Temperature Control - Will air conditioning be allowed to be used, how will offices maintain suitable temperatures for different working conditions? Employers have a legal responsibility to ensure certain working conditions are met depending on the type of work being undertaken. These need to be measured and taken into account as to the pros and cons when looking to prevent wider spread infections.

There are plenty of other measures that are being considered alongside the above. Some places have introduced extra £1 per hour social distancing bonus for sticking to the rules whilst others are considering whether the reopening of physical offices is actually going to be of long-term benefit.

The hidden concerns

The health and safety of workers returning to the workplace will be of paramount importance in the event of any lifting of lockdown restrictions, but this is not simply the implementation of new measures but communication of them, the funding of them and also crucially the auditable records that they are in place. Governing bodies such as the HSE are going to be more vigilant than ever to ensure workplace wellbeing of employees is being considered and looked after. Health and Safety will no longer be considered a “risk we are prepared to take” as this mentality will not be tolerated when the consequences of potentially contracting viruses can have such devastating effects on families and the wider communities of those affected. For too long companies have been able to “ignore” health and safety training as a recurring requirement and some may be dismissive of the use of PPE outside of the care sector environments. The visibility and universal nature of the pandemic and the changes we are all having to make as a result will ensure health and safety practices and regimes are top priority no matter what business or industry you operate in.

The virus can survive for a time on paper and cardboard, so this should be a time to move audits, risk assessments, reporting, communication and checks into an online environment. This doesn’t just support physical safety but enables you to check compliance remotely and 24-7.

In short, it is safe to say that whatever is announced this weekend will continue to change the way we all work for the foreseeable future. Exactly what these changes will look like and how they will be implemented will vary depending on sector, company and potentially even budgets which will require businesses to be swift in their responses.

Workers must be confident they are safe and until this can be demonstrated, organisations should look to maintain a homeworking workforce wherever practicable.