Swine flu: How will your organisation respond to the threat of pandemic

[Newshound]

• How will we meet our workplace health and safety obligations to employees in a pandemic?
• Can we direct employees to attend or not to attend work?
• Would we have to pay employees?
• Can we direct employees to perform different functions or to work from another location?
• Can our employees refuse to attend work?

These are questions posed by law firm DLA Phillips Fox in an article on their web site (here). Unfortunately they don't provide the answer to these questions, but it's food for though.

What is your organisation doing?

[Maisy H]

These could quickly become very pertinent questions and if some of the health expert's predictions are correct then all large workplaces are going to be affected one way or another.

Does anyone here have any of the answers worked out yet?

Cheers,
Maisy

[Mark D]

Some things we have done so far -

Restrictions on international business travel
Education on infection prevention and hygiene (eg. washing hands, covering mouth and nose when coughing/sneezing etc)
Purchased anti-bacterial hand wash and tissues for every workstation, plus anti-bac hand wash in kitchens, bathrooms and lifts
Set up a "sick room" (still trying to think up a sexy name for the room) with network and phone facilities for people to work from if they have minor cold or flu symptoms
Requirement that any staff who travel overseas on business or private travel to work from home or from the sick room for one week after they return
Set up "pool" laptops, 3g modems and Blackberries to assist staff who are working from home

[michaelakassar]

Hey Mark,

I must say I love the idea of a special room for those feeling a little under the weather. However, I think a name change is in order here, along with a few other things.

In addition to the work facilities, perhaps a bit of R&R would also be a good idea.

Let's see now....you should make sure the area has some comfortabe lounges and furniture so your patients can relax and perhaps have something to eat. Fresh fruit, sandwiches, and other gormet foods should be served by smiling waiters/waitresses. Oh, and there's nothing like a good Martini (or other cocktail) to settle a nasty cough and sore thoat, so you'll need to throw in a bar as well . Green tea is a good option as well. You should also have some music playing to assist with the relaxation processs.

Next you should have facilities for massages, seaweed wraps, and special baths. Oh, and not to mention a sauna and spa, as there's nothing like a good dose of hydrotherapy to relax the muscles.

If you don't already have one, a gym will give everyone the chance to get some much needed exercise to help them quickly recover from their symptoms.

If you want your new initiative to line up with the business strategy (as I would), then you can tell your boss that a good Health & Wellness Program will no doubt help the business succeed, as sick people are less productive, more irritable, and of course, more absent, leading to less profits .

So there you have it, with your new Health & Wellness Room, I'm sure your quarrentined staff will make a full recovery in no time, and everyone else will have a good time and stay with you longer.



Cheers
Michaela

[Maisy H]

Mark,
It sounds like your company is being very proactive, but unfortunately not everyone is. Where I work we are still only talking about it!

But what about our legal responsibilities/liabilities as employers?
I can't ever remember seeing anything that spells out our workplace health and safety obligations to employees in a pandemic!

Mark are your people directed to work from the Sick Room if they have a simple cold?
You could potentially be putting a bunch of people in the same room who have different viruses/illnesses, many of whom do not have flu.

Would it simply be better to send people home?
Can we do that as employers?

What do we do if perfectly healthy employees refuse to come to work because there are sick people in the office?

Can employees sue their employer for exposing them to swine flu in the office?


Interesting times

Cheers,
Maisy

PS. I just heard that today's increase in confirmed cases in Victoria was approx 50% (200 to 300). If this rate of infection continues, Victoria will hit approx 1 million infections in just 20 days. At a compound daily growth rate of 25% it will take 37 days to exceed 1 million.

[Mark D]

Maisy, your questions are all valid. There is no perfect solution, since no matter how cautious we are at work and no matter how many procedures we put in place, people will leave work and catch the train or bus or go to the supermarket or pub and be exposed to infected people. All we are doing is taking a few small steps to reduce the risk to our business of large numbers of staff falling ill from exposure to other staff who are sick. At the end of the day it may be a fruitless effort on our part, but it's a low cost initiative that may have some payback in terms of business continuity. I'm sure there are more comprehensive ways to deal with the issue, but they may in fact cause more disruption to day to day business operations. It certainly is a complex issue.

[kevinh]

This is what VECCI say on their site;

Employers need to be aware of relevant industrial relations laws to ensure compliancy with sick leave entitlements for those diagnosed or in quarantine.

That's all very well, except the "relevant industrial relations laws" seem to be in a state of constant flux!

Do people have special sick leave entitlements if they are quarantined by their relevant State health dept? (they don't actually need to have tested positive to be quarantined)

[Mark D]

Quick question - have any of you put in place any restrictions on staff traveling to Melbourne, or quarantine periods for staff who return from Melbourne?

[kevinh]

Why would you do that?

I know Melbourne has the highest known incidence of swine flu of all the cities in Australia, but at 500-600 known infections out of about 4 million people, your chances of getting it are pretty slim.

Besides, you might be better getting it now rather than later, while Tamiflu is still available

[Mark D]

The reason I asked is that a number of companies (including ours) have put restrictions on international travel (and in some cases mandated quarantine periods for staff returning from overseas), yet there are more cases in Melbourne than some of the countries concerned. For example, Melbourne has more confirmed cases than Japan, which recently shut 2800 schools for a week in the Osaka/Kobe prefectures.

I'm not worried personally about catching swine flu, but I can bet that any business would not be impressed to have all of their staff quarantined in their homes by the Dept of Health for a week. Pretty hard to earn revenue with nobody in the office. Smart businesses will be managing potential risks.

[michaelakassar]

Hi All,

Well, I must say, I'm glad I'm located in Perth, and my organisation does not require staff to travel. Although I hope to be going to Sydney next month to visit my sister. Hopefully there won't be travel warnings issued for NSW by the time I get there.

I can imagine Melbourne grinding to a halt. Hopefully the situation won't get that bad here.

While this issue looks a little serious, perhaps we should ensure we try to work with a sense of humour.

Laughter can sometimes be the best medicine.



Cheers
Michaela

[Mark D]

While this issue looks a little serious, perhaps we should ensure we try to work with a sense of humour.

Laughter can sometimes be the best medicine.

Good point, Michaela. That reminds me - where is Patricia?

[michaelakassar]

Hey Mark,

Perhaps she's headed for the U.S..... .

[kevinh]

I guess the risk factor depends upon where you were going in Melbourne and what you were doing here. A very large proportion (80%?) of the infections are in the North and North Western suburbs and of course anyone who is known to be infected is quarantined at home.

Say you fly to Melbourne, get a taxi into the CBD, spend the day in meetings with a small group of people, get a taxi back to the airport and fly home again. You are probably at most risk in the plane, spending one or more hours couped up with hundreds of other people in a confined space. On that basis it may not be advisable to fly anywhere!

On the other hand you could adopt the view that given this virus is pretty much unstoppable and is likely to be with us for a very long time (the Federal Health Minister is talking about 2 winters), so it might be better to get it sooner rather than later.