Guidelines for the ‘new normal’ life after lockdown
Documents reveal rules for how our key industries can reopen and operate in a corovanirus-stricken world
THE “new normal” for working safely in a coronavirus world is detailed in seven separate government docu- ments obtained by The Daily Telegraph.
Draft guidelines for opening up shopping centres, hotels, factories and offices are contained in guidance to be issued by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and circulated privately on Sunday, after consultation with firms, trade bodies and unions.
Hotels, restaurants and bars
The guidance makes clear that there are no foreseeable plans for restaurants and bars to open to in-dining customers but does offer advice on those providing takeaway services. Hotels have been closed since lockdown but the document suggests how they can reopen safely.
Kitchen workers will be told to have minimum interaction with other workers and access to walk-in pantries, fridges and freezers should be restricted to one person at a time. Bar areas in hotels must stay closed along with seated restaurants and cafes. Hotels should consider offering guests a “grab and go” meal service or else room service for food and drink. In takeaway restaurants and bars, the tills should be at least two metres (6ft) from the kitchens. Takeaways can also ask customers to wait in their cars.
Shops and branches
Supermarkets and chemists are already open but when other types of retailers, such as clothes shops and garden centres, are allowed to reopen, they will have to implement new measures. Social distancing will continue, where possible, with shops and bank branches expected to consider introducing Ikeastyle one-way flow systems, limits to the number of customers allowed in a store at one time and using screens to create a barrier between people.
Shops will be expected to consider providing handwashing or sanitation facilities at entry and exit points, although it is not clear whether this will be for workers only or customers too.
Retailers should offer cashless payments and refunds, suspend or reduce customer services and use outside premises for queuing. Employers are also asked to consider staggering employees’ arrival and departure times.
Offices and contact centres
The overriding principle of the guidelines is that employees should work from home where possible – except, for example, if they have critical roles for business or cannot work from home due to home circumstances.
The nine-to-five work day will end for the foreseeable future as employers are expected to consider staggering arrival and departure times.
Offices should be recalibrated to allow social distancing, with employees ideally working side-by-side or backto-back, screens to create a physical barrier between people and floor marking.
Meetings should be conducted remotely but where in-person meetings are necessary, hand sanitiser should be provided and meeting rooms should be well ventilated. Workers should use stairs instead of lifts.
Factories and warehouses
This 14-page section covers people working in industrial environments such as manufacturing and chemical plants, food and other large processing plants, warehouses, distribution centres and port operations.
Office staff should work from home and be provided with suitable equipment to do so, such as laptops. There should be only the minimum number of people essential on site.
Equipment such as pallet trucks and forklifts should be cleaned after each use and shift, with work areas frequently cleaned.
Ventilation systems should be serviced and adjusted and hand sanitiser provided for employees. who have to board vehicles or handle deliveries.
Other people’s homes
The 14-page document gives safety guidance for “in-home workers” that includes cleaners and cooks as well as surveyors, repairmen and women, such as plumbers and electricians, and people offering “lifestyle services” such as fitness trainers.
Workmen and cleaners should, if possible, stick to their own set of tools and cleaning equipment and not share either with other workmen or the homeowner.
If homeowners use a cleaning service, then the company should try to allocate “the same worker to the same household each time there is a visit”.
Home delivery companies should for example “minimise contact during the delivery … by calling to inform of your arrival rather than ringing the doorbell” and payments and exchange of documentation should be carried out electronically.
Vehicles
The 13-page document includes a diagram showing safe seating in vans and cars that includes allowing only one person – the driver – in two-seater vans and only an additional passenger, sat in the rear and furthest from the driver in larger vans and cars.
If two people are in a vehicle, then windows should be kept open to allow fresh air to circulate.
Drivers are encouraged to stay in their vehicles unless their safety is compromised.
It also includes a photograph showing good practice when dropping off packages at homes, leaving parcels on doorsteps before retreating to two metres. The guidance makes mention of taxis but is vague. It says that “contact resulting from people in vehicles, for example taxi customers” should be minimised including making payment contactless and that “vehicle guidance” should be explained.
Working outdoors
This section covers anybody working in construction, energy and utilities, farming and agriculture, forestry, waste collection and rail and road maintenance.
On construction sites, it advises companies to dispense with pass readers at turnstiles and replace them by “showing a pass to security personnel at a distance”. Building sites and farms should be separated into zones and different groups of workers restricted to certain areas to prevent possible con- tamination. Workers should operate side by side or “facing away from each other” and avoid working “face to face”.
Break times should be staggered and meetings should be restricted to only “absolutely necessary participants” with others joining online.
Construction companies should also “minimise the use of portable toilets” while farmers should erect signs on bridleways that cross agricultural land reminding ramblers to maintain their social distance.