The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Offices face safety checks, training for reopening
Against a 10-day checklist that includes training employees on coronavirus safety and certifying premises as prepped — and posting a hot line for individuals to report any violations — for many Connecticut’s May 20 date for “non-essential” offices to reopen may seem too close for comfort. Maybe that is the idea. On Saturday, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration released new rules for businesses allowed to resume activities at their normal premises starting May 20, including restaurants, malls, salons and offices of all types. Under Lamont’s “Reopen Connecticut” plan, businesses must use an online form to “certify” their facilities as having checked off a list of requirements ranging from sanitizers to spacing between work stations prior to reopening.
The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development is creating a website for businesses to do so, allowing them to print a “badge” noting their compliance. The state is taking calls at its 2-1-1 information line for anyone who spots safety lapses that are not addressed by building owners or tenants.
Citing CDC and OSHA guidelines, the Lamont administration is asking employers to keep staff working from home offices where possible. Once workers have arrived at their commercial offices, responsibility for their safety transfers to building owners in common areas and tenants in their own leased premises, under the plan drawn up by Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut committee.
“We’ll ... have an enforcement mechanism there, somebody either from the local municipality or from ourselves — state police or otherwise — saying these rules are the executive order,” Lamont said Monday afternoon. “Maybe we’ll warn you the first time . ... The second time around, it’ll be tougher than that.”
Few tenants will be able to get certified by May 20 to any kind of comprehensive standard, said David Lewis, CEO of the human resources training and consulting firm OperationsInc in Norwalk.
“I told my team this morning that we are looking at probably June 15 as a reasonable day, and it’s not ‘we are opening’ — it’s ‘if you want to you can work in the office,’” Lewis said. “If the certification process is not complete and comprehensive and trustworthy ... then people aren’t going to come to work — or worse, they’re going to come to work and get sick.”
For those who require employees at the office, capacity is not to top 50 percent at any point, with the use of staggered shifts encouraged and logs required for all who arrive or leave to assist in any contact tracing should a worker or visitor be diagnosed later with coronavirus.
Employees are to use designated desks at least six feet from coworkers, with workstations required to have barriers if that is not possible.
There are limits to the safety precautions managers can make, however, given interior designs of the past decade that have emphasized packing more employees into less space, and the particular challenges for highrise buildings with elevators that do not allow for six-foot intervals between riders, the distance recommended by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In its initial guidelines, the Lamont administration is advising building owners to post attendants at elevators to limit access and encourage them to take the stairs if possible, while creating markers in lobbies to keep people separated as any wait for a ride.
BOMA International provides more detailed advice for the building owners and managers it represents, suggesting elevators limit capacity to four people positioned at each corner; programming some elevators to return directly to the ground floor with no stops, to ensure more frequent lobby service to upper floors; and sanitize stairwells frequently to encourage more people to make use of them.
Includes prior reporting by Meghan Friedmann and Paul Schott. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman