Recommendations for Employers to Safeguard Workplace Safety and Hygiene
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), employers have an overall responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy work environment, as far as reasonably practicable, including specific measures to control the spread of viruses like COVID-19. Safety and health measures are specific to each enterprise and should be developed in response to a risk assessment. Some sectors, such as health care and those where workers are in close contact with the public, require stricter control and prevention measures than other sectors. Critically, employers should identify risks and take necessary measures to control and mitigate those risks.
Every workplace can play an important role in containing the outbreak by taking measures such as:
- Organizing work to reduce person-to-person contact, ensuring physical distance at the workplace or implementing remote work arrangements
- Disinfecting the workplace regularly
- Maintaining good environmental hygiene and good indoor ventilation
- Providing adequate facilities (e.g., soap, hand sanitizer, signage, and reminders) and encouraging workers to practice workplace hygiene (e.g. frequent hand hygiene, avoid touching eyes/nose/mouth)
- Promoting respiratory hygiene (e.g. providing face masks to workers especially those at risk to minimize potential infection)
- Limiting or banning non-essential work travel
- Reducing interaction with people outside the workplace as much as possible
- Empowering workers to take action if they feel they are facing an unprotected work situation with imminent and serious risk to their health
- Developing infection control policies and procedures
- Directing workers to comply with quarantine measures, particularly following travel to the high-risk area or have contact with someone who has tested positive
- Directing workers to stay at home or work from home if they have flu-like symptoms (e.g. fever, cough, etc.) regardless of travel or contact history
- Complying with reporting obligations to health authorities and labor inspectorates according to national legislation and practice.
Recommendations for Employers to Safeguard Workplace Safety and Hygiene
