While some companies are preparing to reopen after several weeks of confinement, the International Labor Organization (ILO) called on them, on Tuesday, to comply with protective measures against coronavirus in order to avoid a new wave of contamination.
"The application of occupational safety and health measures is essential to protect the lives of workers, their families and the populations around them, ensure work continuity and economic survival," said the director. General of the ILO, Guy Ryder.
A list of recommendations
This call comes as Europe is moving towards a cautious exit from confinement, while in China, where deconfinement started at the end of March, the authorities fear a second wave of coronavirus. In order to ensure a safe return to work and to avoid further interruptions of work, the ILO has drawn up a list of recommendations to companies, including in particular improving ventilation in the workplace, carry out regular cleaning of the surfaces, or make available the necessary means for washing hands and ensuring disinfection.
Manal Azzi, technical specialist, occupational safety and health at the ILO, stressed in a press conference that companies should remember what basic hygiene measures were, stressing that even in Switzerland, a country renowned for its cleanliness, "in on the street you still see people who do not respect the respiratory etiquette ”, that is, measures of physical distancing and barrier gestures.
Assess the risks to avoid a second wave
She also explained that businesses could, for example, leave doors open "so people don't have to touch the handles", introduce rotation systems and provide "continuous surface cleaning". The ILO also calls on businesses to provide staff with personal protective equipment free of charge when necessary, and to provide for the possibility of isolating suspected cases by tracing each of their contacts.
The ILO also calls on employers to carry out a risk assessment to ensure that their premises meet very strict safety and health criteria from the outset, thereby reducing the “risks of a second wave of contamination contracted in the workplace ”.
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