As an employer, you’re responsible for the health and safety of your employees. You must assess and manage risks in the workplace when your staff return after business premises have been closed due to COVID-19. This includes the risk of contracting COVID-19.
Before asking your employees to return, you should:
-
deep clean the premises
-
perform a health and safety assessment and/or a Return to work risk assessment to determine what potential risks there are in the physical workplace
-
assess whether any adjustments need to be made before re-opening such as ventilation, guidance on maintaining personal hygiene, implementing flexible workforce arrangements, and accommodating those with protected characteristics
-
update your Health and safety policy to include COVID-19 related safety measures, if these are still necessary for your workplace
-
have provisions for employees (or someone in their family) that are displaying COVID-19 symptoms
-
communicate and train all workers and contractors on how the business is adopting and updating existing safety measures