CBI member, Reed Smith, has published a helpful guide on how businesses should undertake a restart, as they get their operations back up and running, as the COVID-19 situation in China improves.
This comprehensive guide includes advice on how to handle differing provincial and regional restart guidelines, as well as a list of best practises employers should adopt to help minimise their employee’s exposure to COVID-19.
A link to the full report is included below. Reed Smith’s guidance on best practise when making the office COVID-19 secure is as follows:
- Establish an Employee Health Card System to collect employees’ recent travel information. Employees who have visited places seriously affected by COVID-19 should self-quarantine at home for 14 days;
- Provide training on the prevention and control of COVID-19, for example, via WeChat groups or by providing information on the company’s website;
- Reduce employees’ contact with visitors. The company should monitor visitors’ body temperatures and require visitors to register before entering its premises;
- Make available all necessary over-the-counter medicines and personal protective equipment, such as face masks and hand sanitizers, for the prevention of COVID-19;
- Keep the company’s premises well ventilated. Companies should open the door or windows if the company’s air conditioning system is a non-fresh-air fan coil system. If the air conditioning system is an HVAC system, the returned air valve should be closed; and the fresh air ventilation system should be turned on for at least one hour after the closing of business on a daily basis to ensure that the indoor air is fresh. The opening of the fresh air ducts and other parts of the air conditioning system must be sanitized to avoid contamination in accordance with the standards set forth in “National standards for cleaning and sanitizing central air conditioning system for public places.” If the company cannot ascertain the type of air conditioning system or how it produces air, or, if there is any suspected or confirmed case within the company premise, the company should cease using the air conditioning system in question;
- Remind employees of the need for frequent hand-washing;
- Disinfect elevators, cafeterias, restrooms and other public areas on a daily basis;
- Clean employees’ work uniforms (if applicable) on a daily basis;
- Keep the workplace clean by, for example, emptying the garbage bins on a daily basis and conducting pest control;
- Reduce the frequency of employee gatherings; reduce group activities among employees;
- Monitor employees’ body temperatures, with the body temperature of those in self-quarantine monitored twice a day. Companies must also monitor other employees’ body temperatures each time they enter the workplace; this can be performed by facility managers. HR should continue to monitor any suspected cases of infection and the health status of absent employees, and report confirmed cases to the local disease control authorities or health care institutions, as well as complying with quarantine measures for confirmed cases and issuing an alert to other employees while also protecting the privacy of affected employees;
- HR should keep abreast of national and local regulations and comply with government guidance on emergency response, assist companies and employees with disease control and other health and safety measures, and cooperate with the government with respect to investigation, testing, sampling, the collection of financial, material or human resources for disease control, quarantine measures, and other public health initiatives. Noncompliance with government directives and emergency measures could result in criminal or civil liabilities.
To read the advice in full, please follow the link.
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