When Rachelreturned to the office after months of working from home, she was surprised more practices hadn’t changed in response to COVID-19.
“The desks hadn’t been rearranged to accommodate for being appropriately socially distanced,” she said.
“We were in the same proximity that we had been in beforehand, so they hadn’t done a change to the floor plan.
“There was hand sanitiser available but it wasn’t everywhere and wasn’t easily accessible at all times.
“It wasn’t what you would expect for somewhere with that many people walking around.”
Rachel said there was no encouragement from management for sick employees to stay at home.
“We [workers] kind of made comments to each other, but no one [in management], as far as I could tell, actually spoke to him separately and advised ‘maybe it’s best to to go home and deal with this illness elsewhere’.
“It made many people in the office rather nervous.”
As some of us contemplate a return to office-based work, employers and employees are facing a completely new work landscape to the one they left before the coronavirus outbreak.
Let’s take a look at what workplaces are required to do to be COVID-safe — and what employees can do if their office isn’t complying with the guidelines.
How have workplaces been asked to change in response to COVID-19?
At the end of May, Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced the government’s plan for the nation to physically return to workplaces.
“To get Australians back to work, what is essential is they could go back into a COVID-19 safe workplace,” he said.
“It is important that businesses, employees and employers have the tools to deal with the COVID-19 environment and ensure they are all working together.”
The Government introduced the National COVID-19 safe workplace principles, a set of guidelines for employers and employees to implement and abide by.
These principles operate alongside existing workplace health and safety (WHS) legislation around Australia, as well as public health directives already in force.
What are the National COVID-19 safe workplace principles?
There’s a full list here, but in essence, they are:
- Acknowledging all workers h