Urge staff to keep wearing masks indoors, introduce workplace bubbles and keep plastic screens: New guidance for workplaces is FINALLY released just days before lockdown ends and looks remarkably like the OLD rules

• Guidance says firms should consider keeping staff wearing masks indoors 
• Suggest keeping social distancing measures like screens, back-to-back desks 
•  Likely to set the scene for furious battles between employees and their staff

Businesses should consider keeping staff wearing masks indoors even after lockdown ends, according to new government Covid guidance released tonight.

Documents released online just days before the July 19 unlocking also suggest workplaces keep social distancing measures like plastic screens and back-to-back desks in a bid to placate nervous workers.

They appear to suggest firms introduce ‘fixed teams or partnering’ to reduce the threat from coronavirus spreading through their workforce, – which has echoes of Covid bubbles in place in this year’s full lockdown.

The guidance appears likely to set the scene for furious battles between employees and their staff in the days and weeks ahead about how often they can return to their primary workplace and how it should be set up. 

It tells bosses: ‘You should discuss a return to the workplace with workers, and trade unions to make working arrangements that meet both business and individual needs.

‘Employers and others must continue to follow statutory health and safety requirements, conduct a risk assessment, and take reasonable steps to manage risks in their workplace or setting.’ 

Unions and employers hit out at the guidance with a warning that it is a ‘recipe for chaos’.

Businesses should consider keeping staff wearing masks indoors even after lockdown ends, according to new government Covid guidance released tonight.

Documents released online just days before the July 19 unlocking also suggest workplaces keep social distancing measures like plastic screens and back-to-back desks in a bid to placate nervous workers

Old rules V new guidance 

 Old Rules

• Work from home unless it’s unreasonable for you to do so 
• Provide adequate ventilation … supplying fresh air to enclosed space.
• Arrange work spaces to keep staff apart. Consider using barriers to separate people and introduce back-to-back or side-by-side working. 
• Face coverings are not mandatory in offices. However, they are required for customers and staff in some businesses that are customer facing. 
• When car sharing … share the car with the same people each time and, where possible, only with members of your household or support bubble … open windows for ventilation … travel side by side or behind other people, rather than facing them, where seating arrangements allow facing away from each other 

 New Guidance

• Come back to work, but gradually over the summer.
• Maximise the supply of fresh air in your premises. 
• (Consider) reviewing layouts, using screens or barriers to separate people from each other, or using back-to-back or side-to-side working. 
• Consider encouraging the use of face coverings by workers particularly in indoor areas where they may come into contact with people they do not normally meet.
• Encourage people travelling together in any one vehicle to, wherever possible: use fixed travel partners, do not sit face-to-face  (and do) open windows 

Dr Roger Barker, policy director at the Institute of Directors, said: ‘Like everybody else, businesses across the country having been awaiting ”freedom day” with bated breath, but instead we have had a series of mixed messages and patchwork requirements from Government that have dampened that enthusiasm.

‘Return to work or continue to stay at home. Throw away your masks or continue to wear them. Today’s long-awaited guidance from Government has done little to dispel that confusion.

‘Whilst it is right that companies should be allowed to take decisions based on their unique circumstances, it is vital that government provides businesses with best practice in developing their own policies.

‘However, business leaders are understandably confused as to the legal status that this guidance has and are concerned about vulnerability under health and safety legislation, as well as the validity of their insurance.’

The guidance is for ‘offices, factories, plants, warehouses, labs and research facilities and similar indoor environments’.

On masks it notes their use will no longer be mandatory indoors in England. But it adds: Consider encouraging the use of face coverings by workers (for example through signage), particularly in indoor areas where they may come into contact with people they do not normally meet. 

‘This is especially important in enclosed and crowded spaces.

‘When deciding whether you will ask workers or customers to wear a face covering, you would need to consider the reasonable adjustments needed for staff and clients with disabilities. 

‘You would also need to consider carefully how this fits with other obligations to workers and customers arising from the law on employment rights, health and safety and equality legislation.’

On office layout it points out there will be no social distancing rules any more but ‘Covid-19 can still be spread through social contact’

‘You can mitigate this risk by reducing the number of people your workers come into contact with,’ it adds.

‘Examples of ways to do this include reducing the number of people each person has contact with by using ‘fixed teams or partnering’ or ‘cohorting’ (so each person works with only a few others)…

‘(And) reviewing layouts, using screens or barriers to separate people from each other, or using back-to-back or side-to-side working, instead of face-to-face (screens are only likely to be beneficial if placed between people who will come into close proximity with each).’  

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘We all want the economy to unlock as soon as possible, but these new back-to-work safety guidelines are a recipe for chaos and rising infections.

‘They have been published without proper consultation with unions or employers, just two full working days before restrictions end on Monday.

‘Instead of providing clear and consistent guidance on how to keep staff safe at work, the government is abandoning workers and employers.

‘As infection rates surge, every employer must by law carry out a thorough risk assessment and take action to keep their workers safe.

‘But these inadequate guidelines will leave many employers with more questions than answers and worried about their liability if they get things wrong.’

Ms O’Grady said wearing face coverings should remain a legal requirement on public transport and in shops.

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