Distance between employees, disinfection of premises, provision of protective masks ... This is what "life after" will look like in companies. A week before the deconfinement scheduled for May 11 and the return to the office of employees who have no other choice, the Ministry of Labor unveiled, Sunday, May 3, the sanitary protocol for deconfinement for companies in the private sector.

If companies, businesses and establishments welcoming the public want to bring their employees back from May 11, they must first provide for the establishment of a minimum space of 4 m2 per employee, with management of flows and senses of traffic to avoid crossings. Thus, in a space of 100 m2, only 25 people can be present at the same time.

This rule also applies to common areas: in an 8 m2 lift, only two people can enter at a time. "It is up to the company to organize this according to the size of its facilities", specifies the Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud, in an interview with France Info, Monday morning.

The rooms and door handles must be disinfected daily, or even several times a day. Security gates will be condemned or hydroalcoholic gel will be offered nearby, markings on the ground to organize traffic are recommended. Closed rooms must be ventilated for 15 minutes three times a day.

Wearing a mask is not compulsory

Wearing a mask is not compulsory. It can only be imposed if the rules of distancing cannot be respected. In this case, it will be up to the employer to offer masks to his employees. 

"The mask is necessary in addition to the barrier gestures but it is in addition and it cannot be imposed", specifies Muriel Pénicaud.

The temperature measurement, deemed too intrusive, cannot be imposed on employees either. The same is true for new coronavirus screening campaigns, which will not be authorized in the workplace.

Employers' civil and criminal liability

In the event of non-compliance with these measures, common to all companies and associations, whatever their size, their location and their sector of activity, employers will incur civil and criminal liability.

"It is the health of the employees that counts", insists Muriel Pénicaud. "The company therefore has the responsibility for the means: that is to say, it must put in place the means for compliance with the health protocol."

These rules come "in addition" to the 48 business guides already available on the ministry's website, which detail hygiene and social distancing measures "profession by profession", recalled the ministry.

With AFP

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