What about retail?

I was disappointed but not surprised to read Jan Grant’s letter, ‘Flexible rule’ on September 18. During a recent visit to The Range in Gosport none of the staff were wearing face coverings; their view was that ‘face coverings were to be worn by the public to protect the staff and the staff did not have to wear them’. The Range head office simply stated that the local store manager would have done a risk assessment. On a visit to the Tesco superstore on Grange Road, Gosport, most staff on the shop floor were wearing masks but several had them under their chins or not covering their nose. Tesco head office customer services said

‘it was not mandatory for colleagues to wear face coverings but we have asked them to’.

Retail is required by law under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to provide a safe environment for workers and customers.

The need for some cold confectionery was outweighing the risks of more people contracting this awful virus. M LEWIS

They are also required to follow social distancing guidelines; two metres separation or one metre with mitigation. To meet these obligations a risk assessment would have been conducted to implement mitigations where appropriate to establish a covid secure environment. A responsible employer would regularly review the risk assessment if there was a material change and also have a mechanism to ensure their processes/procedures were being

Would the people who don’t comply with the government’s social distancing call themselves murderers? You go out, get too close to someone with Covid-19, get infected, taken to hospital and the health professional who is looking after you catches Covid-19 and dies – all because you ignored the government guidelines because you could not be bothered.

How would you feel if you were going into hospital to have major surgery and the surgeon comes to your bed and says: ‘I won’t be wearing a face mask or rubber gloves because I can’t be bothered.

It sounds a bit far fetched but a lot of health professionals have died treating people with Covid-19. Think about the NHS Staff, and do as you are told otherwise this lockdown will go for a very long time.

Ted Saunders Portchester