- Making your workplace safe
- Social distancing measures in the workplace
- Furloughed staff/staff given leave of absence
- Review policies and procedures
- Global business - risk and compliance considerations
This checklist is intended for in-house counsel and compliance officers advising their commercial organisations on obligations for a safe return of employees to the office workplace during a pandemic such as COVID-19. It incorporates UK government guidance and recommended actions as well as signposting relevant global guidance including the World Health Organisation (WHO). It also provides pointers on furloughed staff returning to work; policies to review as a result of the pandemic, and highlights risk and compliance considerations for global businesses.
Making your workplace safe
- Consult government guidelines regularly
- Carry out a COVID-19 risk assessment and share the results with your employees and on your website
- Arrange a deep clean of the workplace
- Source alcohol-based hand sanitiser, wipes and cleaning supplies for the office and make available in communal areas and toilets
- Source personal protective equipment (PPE) as necessary
- Frequently clean and disinfect objects and surfaces that are touched regularly
- Set clear use and cleaning guidance for toilets
- Promote regular and thorough hand-washing by employees, contractors and customers
- Provide hand drying facilities (paper towels or electrical dryers)
- Decide on, and if appropriate implement, any workplace testing and health declaration measures and/or protocols
- Put protocols in place in the event of employees falling ill
- Brief employees, contractors, and customers to stay at home if they or a member of their household develop COVID-19 symptoms
- Advise employees and contractors to consult national travel advice before travelling
- Consider protocols for employees who are considered to be at higher risk
Explanatory notes
Employers have a duty of care to take reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of employees. In the UK, this is governed by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Carrying out a COVID-19 risk assessment ahead of a return to work is recommended in most jurisdictions. In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive has provided this free resource to assist. See: Health and Safety Executive office risk assessment tool
Protocols in the event of an employee falling ill with suspected COVID-19 at your workplace should include:
- putting the ill person in a room or area where they are isolated from others in the workplace
- limiting the number of people who have contact with the sick person
- contacting the local health authorities.
In the UK, clinically extremely vulnerable individuals (people who have specific underlying health conditions that make them extremely vulnerable to severe illness if they contract COVID-19), have been strongly advised not to work outside the home.
Clinically vulnerable individuals, who are at higher risk of severe illness (for example, people with some pre-existing conditions), have been asked to take extra care in observing social distancing and should be helped to work from home, either in their current role or in an alternative role.
If clinically vulnerable (but not extremely clinically vulnerable) individuals cannot work from home, they should be offered the option of the safest available on site roles, enabling them to stay socially distanced from others. See Working safely during Coronavirus (COVID-19) published by the UK government.
Related links:
UK:
Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance and support GOV.UK
Health and Safety Executive office risk assessment tool
Working safely during COVID-19 in offices and contact centres
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Covid-19 general workplace safety risk assessment
Return to work guidance on lexology (COVID-19)
USA:
US Department of Labor – coronavirus support
Return to work Post-Coronavirus checklist (USA)
US Occupational Safety and Health Administration
US: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CSC)
Global/General:
World Health Organisation advice for getting your workplace ready
WHO measures in the workplace in the context of COVID-19
Lexology Pro Compliance Covid-19 Top tips for a low-risk return to the workplace
Social distancing measures in the workplace
- For employees in the office, comply with social distancing guidelines and promote keeping employees socially distanced whenever possible
- Consider staggered arrival and departure times at workplace to reduce crowding
- Provide hand sanitiser at entry/exit points and hands-free entrance protocols
- Put up signs to remind employees and visitors of social distancing requirements
- Avoid sharing workstations and/or keep appropriately distanced
- Consider using screens or barriers to separate people from each other
- Consider using back-to-back or side-to-side working (rather than face-to-face) whenever possible
- Source and use floor tape to mark areas to assist with distancing
- Consider introducing a one-way flow through buildings
- Consider creating additional space for use as communal space for socially distanced breaks
- Limit visitors to appointments only if possible, and hold meetings online whenever possible
- Provide hand-sanitisers in meeting rooms
- Hold meetings outdoors if possible or in well-ventilated rooms
- Maintain a record of all visitors
- Develop and agree a response plan in the event of an attendee of a meeting in your workplace developing COVID-19 symptoms, including informing participants
- Where social distancing cannot be adhered to, consider staggering work shifts, especially in open plan offices
Explanatory notes
You should consider ways to enable as many employees as possible to work from home. In the workplace, however, social distancing must be maintained wherever possible.
In the UK, homeworking is advised unless not possible.
If an attendee of a meeting in your workplace tests positive for COVID-19, you should inform participants and share information with healthcare authorities as appropriate, such as the NHS in the UK. This will help public health authorities trace people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 if one or more participants become ill shortly after the event.
Employees' medical information in the EU and UK is special category data under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), and therefore should only be collected or processed if there is a substantial public interest, or a public interest in the area of public health, in doing so. It may be challenging in strict data protection law terms, but the Information Commissioner Officer (ICO) in the UK has said generally that the office will take into account the compelling public interest in safety.
Related links:
Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) Gov.uk
Coronavirus recovery - six data protection steps for organisations
Special category data – the ICO
Australian tracing app CovidSafe
Lexology: COVID-10 top tips for a low risk return to the workplace
Lexology: COVID-19 Contact tracing: Can it co-exist with personal privacy?
Furloughed staff/staff given leave of absence
- Keep up to date with relevant government guidelines and the employment law position in your jurisdiction
- Regularly review any furlough/leave of absence agreements and consider
- The jobs/skills that are needed in the workplace
- If all staff are needed back at the same time
- If any staff might be kept on furlough as they are temporarily unable to work due to, for example, caring responsibilities
- If furloughed employees/employees given leave of absence need to return to work, give them appropriate notice usually in writing
- If an agreement cannot be reached with an employee regarding return to work, consider amending the employment contract and taking employment law advice
Explanatory notes
Some employees may have been furloughed or given leave of absence as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on the organisation.
Under the UK government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, employees must be furloughed for a minimum period of three weeks. Keep up with government guidelines on the relevant scheme.
In the US, the coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose childcare provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus.
Related links:
UK:
Furlough UK government guidelines
Acas – Furlough letter template
What to do if you’re employed and cannot work due to coronavirus (COVID-19) Gov.uk
USA:
US Dept of Labor: Temporary Rule: Paid Leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act
US Dept of Labor unemployment insurance relief during COVID-19 outbreak
Review policies and procedures
- Review all employee policies including home/remote working, grievance procedures and sick/absence policies
- Update information technology (IT), cybersecurity and data security policies
- Arrange appropriate IT/cybersecurity training for employees, in particular regarding COVID-19 phishing schemes
- Update job descriptions, including designating essential duties that cannot be performed remotely
- Consider suspending non-essential business travel
Explanatory notes
Where employers still have employees working remotely, all employee policies need to be reviewed to ensure they can be applied to remote working. It is likely that where possible there will be a need for enhanced remote working, either as a result of the pandemic or as part of a permanent shift to increased homeworking on the part of the business.
In general, grievance/disciplinary polices will need to be updated to reflect hearings held remotely.
Related links:
Pro Compliance: Pandemic Response – Cybersecurity remote working checklist
Pro Compliance: Pandemic Response – Remote working checklist (general guidelines)
Global business - risk and compliance considerations
- Keep abreast of relevant global regulatory developments
- Consider completing a compliance risk assessment of global business jurisdictions and avoid a ‘one size fits all approach’
- Ensure supply chain due diligence is followed including background checks, audit processes and in particular with any new suppliers in new locations
- Facilitate use of technological alternatives, such as video conferencing and hotlines, to respond to any compliance issues and to ensure continued oversight and adherence to relevant compliance policies and controls
- Consider updating supplier agreements to incorporate a disaster recovery plan
Explanatory notes
Countries reopening their economies will do so at their own pace and with their own rules. If your business has global operations, it is important to be aware that your policies will need to be updated according to each jurisdiction to ensure compliance in each location. Your business should monitor compliance with country-specific standards.
A risk assessment is advisable to assess ‘hot spots’ as some markets may be under greater financial pressure or have a greater risk of corruption, for example potential anti-bribery and anti-corruption risks and potential compliance difficulties.
Your business’ global supply chains may have been disrupted by the pandemic and you may have been forced to turn to new suppliers to ensure continued business operations. Enhanced due diligence of business partners is strongly encouraged.
Related links: