The government has issued new guidelines specifically for people who work outdoors to ensure workplaces are as safe as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Issued this month (11 May), the specific guidance is for people in farming and agriculture including seasonal labour to help protect them from the risk of COVID-19. The outline includes nine steps which must be adhered to.
They are:
1. Assessing the risk
As an employer, you have a legal responsibility to protect workers and others from risk to their health and safety. This means you need to think about the risks they face and do everything reasonably practicable to minimise them, recognising you cannot completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19.
You must make sure the risk assessment for your business addresses the risks of COVID-19. A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace.
If you have fewer than five workers, or are self-employed, you don’t have to write anything down as part of your risk assessment.
Employers have a duty to speak to their staff about health and safety. It is advisable to get employees involved in discussions around health and safety and best practice.
Where the enforcing authority, such as the HSE or your local authority, identifies employers who are not taking action to comply with the relevant public health legislation and guidance to control public health risks, they will consider taking a range of actions to improve control of workplace risks.
If possible, employers should publish the results of their risk assessments on their website and the government expect all businesses with over 50 employees to do so.
2. Who can work?
· Clinically extremely vulnerable individuals have been strongly advised not to work outside the home.
· Clinically vulnerable individuals, who are at higher risk of severe illness (for example, people with some pre-existing conditions), have been asked to take extra care in observing social distancing and should be helped to work from home, either in their current role or in an alternative role.
· If clinically vulnerable individuals cannot work from home, they should be offered the option of the safest available on-site roles, enabling them to stay 2m away from others. If they have to spend time within 2m of others, you should carefully assess whether this involves an acceptable level of risk.
· Particular attention should also be paid to people who live with clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.
· Individuals who have symptoms of COVID-19 as well as those who live in a household with someone who has symptoms should not come to work.
3. Implementing social distancing
Make every reasonable effort to comply with the social distancing guidelines set out by the government (keeping people 2m apart wherever possible).
Where the social distancing guidelines cannot be followed in full actions must be taken to reduce the risk of transmission between staff. This may include:
· Increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning.
· Keeping the activity time involved as short as possible.
· Using screens or barriers to separate people from each other.
· Using back-to-back or side-to-side working (rather than face-to-face) whenever possible.
· Reducing the number of people each person has contact with by using ‘fixed teams or partnering’ (so each person works with only a few others).
· Staggering arrival and departure times at work.
· Limiting passengers in work vehicles.
· Cleaning shared vehicles between shifts or on handover.
· Reducing congestion, for example, by having more entry points to the workplace.
· Providing handwashing facilities, or hand sanitiser where not possible, at entry and exit points.
· Reducing job rotation and equipment rotation, for example, single tasks for the day.
· Separating sites into working zones to keep different groups of workers physically separated as much as practical.
4. Managing common areas
· Stagger break times to reduce pressure on break rooms or places to eat.
· Use safe outdoor areas for breaks.
· Reconfigure seating and tables to maintain spacing and reduce face-to-face interactions.
5. Managing external visitors
· Where site visits are required, site guidance on social distancing and hygiene should be explained to visitors on or before arrival.
· Limit the number of visitors at any one time.
· Determine if schedules for essential services and contractor visits can be revised to reduce interaction and overlap between people.
· Maintain a record of all visitors, if this is practical.
6. Provide signage
· Ensure public notices are visible and help inform workers, customers, visitors, contractors and the public to maintain social distancing whilst near the workplace.
· There is a high likelihood in some areas that working outdoors will draw the attention of the public. Visible signage may be used to inform the public of the type of work that is being performed.
· Provide signage at entrances to the worksite to remind the public and workers to maintain social distancing.
· Provide signage on rights of way that cross your workplace to remind the public to maintain social distancing.
7. Implement frequent cleaning
Workplaces should be cleaned more frequently, paying close attention to high-contact objects like door handles and keyboards. Employers should provide handwashing facilities or hand sanitisers at entry and exit points.
· Frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment between uses, using your usual cleaning products.
· Frequent cleaning of objects and surfaces that are touched regularly, such as buckets, site equipment and control panels, and making sure there are adequate disposal arrangements.
· Clearing workspaces and removing waste and belongings from the work area at the end of a shift.
· Sanitisation of all hand tools, controls, machinery and equipment after use.
8. Use of Personal Protective Equipment and masks coverings
Where you are already using PPE in your work activity to protect against non-COVID-19 risks, you should continue to do so. When managing the risk of COVID-19, additional PPE beyond what you usually wear is optional. This is because COVID-19 is a different type of risk to the risks you normally face in a workplace, and needs to be managed through social distancing, hygiene and fixed teams or partnering.
9. Managing goods arriving and leaving the farm
· Revising pick-up and drop-off collection points, procedures, signage and markings.
· Where possible and safe, having single workers load or unload vehicles.
· Where possible, using the same pairs of people for loads where more than one is needed.
· Enabling drivers to access welfare facilities when required, consistent with other guidance.
· Encouraging drivers to stay in their vehicles where this does not compromise their safety and existing safe working practice.
More information can be found at gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19