Employers Cautioned About Swine Flu
Long term sickness leaves could prove to be a serious threat to the recession-hit UK economy, especially with the new forecasts on swine flu. The prediction that in the next one year almost one in three British citizens could be hit by the virus has brought unrest in the business circles.
The economy is not in a position to handle any large scale absences of the employees from work as it has been estimated that any such absence can cause a loss to the tune of £1.5 billion daily.
The Head of Employment at Rowlands Solicitors, William O’Neill, advised the employers to undertake a through assessment of the risks. He also suggested that the employers should work on measures to reduce the risk by providing adequate sanitisation as well as maintaining overall hygiene in the workplace.
He also encouraged the employers to ensure that the employees are in lesser contact with members of general public, as far as possible. They should try to provide the employees with face masks at the work place and in the worst case, allow the employees to work from home to reduce the person-to-person contact.
Last but not the least, the employers are under an obligation to make the employees aware of the imminent risk and to inform them of the symptoms of swine flu, so that infected employees can take immediate action and prevent spread of the virus due to ignorance.
The employers might have to do a tight rope walk in choosing between a larger work force in this time of recession and the necessity to make sure that the staff is not at risk due to swine flu infection of one member.
Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions to employees with regard to health and safety issues. Companies should make themselves fully aware of the most up-to-date requirements by visiting Workplace Law and looking at their highly regarded coshh courses.
