The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs announced a policy regarding the measures that companies should take to protect workers and mitigate the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the workplace and accommodation.

WHAT SHALL EMPLOYERS DO? 

Information sharing and awareness raising

Raise workers’ awareness about the measures that are being adopted at the enterprise and government level;

· Highlight the importance to take temperature regularly and monitor for respiratory symptoms;

· Highlight the importance to observe good personal hygiene by reminding them to wash their hands regularly, cover mouth with elbow if coughing or sneezing and to avoid touching their faces.

· Work with worker representatives / welfare officers who can communicate in workers’ languages. Encourage workers to share information and perspectives, ask questions, and verify information.

Increased cleaning and sanitation

· Increase frequency of routine cleaning and sanitation of areas with high human contact in worksites, accommodation, bus, bathrooms, kitchens, canteens, etc, (e.g., common spaces used for meetings, toilets, lifts, refuse bins and handrails).

· Provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces (for example, doorknobs, keyboards, remote controls, desks) can be wiped down by employees before each use.

Limitation of social gathering to the minimum essential

· Reduce working hours to 6 hours until further notice.

· Stagger entry and exit of workers from the workplace,

· Restrict the use of common spaces (e.g., canteen and changing rooms) to a limited number of workers at the same time, in line with the MOPH guidelines

· Work as much as possible to reduce the population density in the workplace and accommodation by allocating 6 square meters per worker in the accommodations.

· Prohibit all in-person meetings that are not essential and limiting internal movement, as much as feasible

· Suspend all training events

Enhancing the role of the Occupational Safety and Health Officers and management to supervise workers and ensure that protective measures are applied, in particular:

· Perform a risk assessment to protect workers and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

· Work with public health authorities to develop a plan to identify suspected cases and contacts with COVID-19 in your workplace and manage them properly.

· Consider impact on mental health (for example, anxiety about job and income security, about the risk of contracting Covid 19, and the situation of their family members in their home countries).

· Provide psychological and social support to infected employees after recovery

· Exanimate workers temperature before taking buses to move to the workplace and to return the accommodation.

· Isolate any worker with high temperature and reporting to the Ministry of Public Health hotline on the number 16000

· Take advantage of the clinics available in companies to carry out examination procedures and follow up the health status of workers. Provide additional precautionary measures to workers most vulnerable to infection, such as those with chronic diseases (diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases).

· Limit the number of workers and users of buses to a maximum of 50% of the number of chairs on the bus.

· Ensure the use of masks and availability of hand sanitizers in the workplace.

· Ensure that there are no gatherings inside the workplace and that the safe distance between the workers is kept at all time while performing the work.

· Do not forget about other Safety and Health risks in the workplace. 

Monitoring and penalties

· The Labor Inspection Department will monitor employers’ compliance with strict inspection campaigns and failure to comply will result in the application of penalties. In case of failure to report suspected or confrmed cases of COVID-19 infection, the employer will be subjected to the penalties stipulated in Law No. 9 of 2020 amending some provisions of Decree Law No. 17 of 1990 regarding the prevention of infectious diseases.