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Ireland’s workplaces will change beyond recognition as Covid-19 restrictions ease, under an agreement reached between the Government, employers and unions.
Handshakes will be prohibited, temperature tests will be conducted in accordance with public health advice, and workers will not be allowed to share pens, bottles, or cups.
Vulnerable workers at risk should receive “preferential support” to maintain physical distance and, where possible, to have the support of their employers to work from home.
Workers will be organized into small teams that constantly work and take breaks together and should limit interactions with other colleagues, while all staff should be encouraged to remain working from home.
Workers must sign a form three days before returning to their workplace to certify “to the best of their knowledge” that they have no Covid-19 symptoms, are not self-isolating, or await test results.
The new rules will be monitored by the Health and Safety Authority, which will have powers to annul misbehaviors, or even to close premises that they are not complying with.
Meanwhile, it was learned that Department of Transportation officials were told it was probably a large number of them will work from home for the rest of the year.
Department Secretary General Graham Doyle wrote to all staff, “Most of us are likely to work from home (to a greater or lesser extent) for the rest of 2020.”
Mr. Doyle’s email notes that remote work will remain in place for those who can do it until at least August under the government’s Covid-19 roadmap. Doyle said he hopes a staggered return to work “will likely involve up to 25 percent of the staff present in any of our offices at any time.”
Details of the National Safe Return to Work Protocol will be announced today after the Cabinet considered it yesterday. It will mean that social distancing rules should be rigidly applied, including banning everything except essential face-to-face meetings. Employers must establish one-way systems for personnel entering and leaving buildings while business travel is discouraged.
The canteens should close unless social distancing can be obeyed and eating breaks should be staggered. When it is not possible to keep people two meters away, such as production lines, alternative measures should be taken, such as plastic sneeze guards, or keeping “at least one meter away”.
The protocol also maintains that employers must provide personal protective equipment and protective clothing to workers in accordance with Covid-19’s identified exposure risks and in accordance with public health councils.
Meanwhile, 10 outbreaks of Covid-19 have been identified in meat processing plants and 566 employees have been infected, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
HSE outbreak control teams have been dispatched to each plant to try to control outbreaks, according to medical director Dr. Tony Holohan.
NPHET announced the death of 27 other patients at its briefing yesterday. There have now been 1,429 Covid-19 related deaths in the Republic. NPHET reported some 156 new cases of the disease. The new cases bring the total number of cases to 22,541.
Compliance with restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus remains very high, according to Dr. Holohan.
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