Companies asked to prioritise Covid-19 as South Africans return to work
The Department of Employment and Labour says employers must have measures in place to protect employees from Covid-19 in the workplace.
Many employees will be returning to work on Monday following the festive season break.
The return to work comes amid the second wave of Covid-19 infections and a rapid rise in positive cases.
The department’s Musa Zondi says companies must have a clear plan on how everyone in the workplace will be protected, including contractors and volunteers.
“In this country in the second week of January most companies go back to work, it is different with Covid-19 a lot of people will be coming back, they may or may not be asymptomatic, they may or may not have the virus so companies have a responsibility to ensure that there is a compliance officer who not only ensure that people follow the necessary protocols, but also in cases where people need to be tested the compliance officer make sure that the whole workforce is not affected.”
Zondi says working from home is also a good strategy to ensure the safety of everyone.
“It is not even an issue of workers have the right to work from home, it is a very practical way of doing things, if a case can be made for workers to do the work from home and be productive, they should be allowed to avoid unnecessary exposure of Covid-19.
“Employees must also be responsible and disclose when they have tested positive, it is a case of being responsible, if I know that I am exposed, I don’t want to infect others, I would rather go into quarantine, get treatment to ensure the safety of others.”
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Zondi says company policies, together with department directives, should be used as guidelines.
“Companies have their own policies in terms of infectious diseases, those policies should be put in place now especially taking into account how infectious Covid-19 has been and how devastating it's begging to show.
“We have issued a number of directions about what companies should do, but they should also go a step further for the safety of their workers,It is crucial for companies to also ensure that they don’t expose contractors and suppliers to Covid-19.
“Employees also have a responsibility to protect themselves. They can call neighbour inspection officer to do the necessary inspection.”
