Covid-19: Re-opening businesses and getting employees back to work
The Government has now published detailed guidance called “Working Safely During Coronavirus (COVID-19)” to assist UK employers in getting businesses working again. Now that certain business sectors are allowed to re-open it is crucial that workplaces are assessed so that the safest possible working environment can be created to facilitate employees coming back to work.
Workers and employees need to feel confident in the safety of their workplace if they are to come back to work. A good collaboration between employees and employers will facilitate this process and the Government has suggested that employers should publish the results of their risk assessments on their websites and if a business has over 50 employees then they will be expected to do so.
A good starting point is for all staff to complete a daily health declaration to confirm that they have not knowingly been in contact with an infected person, have been maintaining social distancing and do not have symptoms themselves. A Covid-19 Daily Health Declaration Form is available in the H&S documents here .
The full Government guidance can be found here: View the guidance on working safely during coronavirus .
The Government has also produced a downloadable notice available on the related documents link below. The Government suggests that this notice should be displayed by employers in the workplace to show employees, customers and other visitors that the employer has followed the Government guidance.
The pages below contain the Government’s 5 key points for businesses and look at some general considerations for different types of office based and construction businesses.