With the spread of covid-19, a whole new approach to the employer's health and safety obligation towards its employees is required. The employer must indeed be extra vigilant and take unprecedented measures to meet the said obligation.
In such a context, beyond the organizational upheavals it implies, how can the imperative to continue the country's economic activity be reconciled with the need to protect employees?
Below is a summary presentation of the concrete measures that can be considered by the employer to comply with his health and safety obligation.
The update of the single occupational risk assessment document (DUERP)
This is, in our opinion, the first measure that must be implemented by the employer in the current health context.
As a reminder, the establishment of the DUERP is an obligation that weighs on all employers, without any workforce requirement.
This is a document in which the risks identified in the company are listed as well as the means to be implemented to avoid them or, if necessary, limit them.
With the spread of covid-19, the risk of contamination exists, by hypothesis, for all employees and threatens all workstations.
It appears necessary to update the DUER to take account of the appearance of this new threat, identify the risk it poses to the company and define the measures to be implemented to protect the health of employees. .
This necessity is imposed, in our view, on two counts:
- It could allow the employer to justify the illegitimate nature of the possible exercise of the right of withdrawal by one of its employees;
- It could allow the employer, in the situation where his liability is sought in the context of a possible action for inexcusable fault, that he has taken the necessary measures to protect the health and safety of his employees.
The implementation of teleworking
Government instructions are clear, teleworking should be used whenever possible.
In the context of an epidemic, the implementation of teleworking can be imposed unilaterally by the employer, without any particular formalism.
Be careful, however, not to use the measure of teleworking with employees placed in partial activity: a posteriori checks are planned by the public authorities to verify the existence of the partial activity system.
The organization of work and workstations when teleworking is not possible
However, the use of telework is not possible for all workstations: it is then permitted to ask employees to continue their activity (when such continuation of activity is possible). Normally ? Not quite.
Given a safety obligation, the employer must take the necessary measures to protect the health of his employees and, among these, ensure compliance with the barrier gestures recommended by the public authorities.
One of these barrier gestures to be enforced is that of enforcing a distance of at least one meter between employees to prevent the spread of the epidemic by aerosol.
This measure makes it necessary to review the configuration of employees' workspaces, in particular when these are cramped.
Different possibilities can be considered to enforce this measure: for example, setting up physical barriers between workstations, such as partitions, markings on the ground materializing the distances to be respected, plexiglass walls separating employees from customers, a rotation system to limit the number of people present at the same time, avoid meetings, etc.
The provision of sanitary and hygiene tools
The employer must ensure that the supply of soaps, gels, hand towels, disinfectant wipes and tissues is sufficient and that garbage bags are made available to employees.
As a reminder, it is recommended by the public authorities to use single-use tissues and to throw them away immediately.
Disinfection of workspaces
Workspaces must be regularly disinfected (desks, computers, door handles and switches included, etc.).
It is also recommended to provide employees with disinfectant wipes.
In the event of contamination of an employee, the Ministry of Labor recommends methodical cleaning of the workplaces must be carried out according to the following procedure:
- equipment for the people in charge of cleaning the floors and surfaces with the wearing of a single-use overall, household gloves (wearing a respiratory protection mask is not necessary due to the absence of aerosolization by the floors and surfaces);
- floor maintenance: favor a wet washing-disinfection strategy so that:
- the floors and surfaces are cleaned with a single-use washing strip impregnated with a detergent product;
- the floors and surfaces are then rinsed with water from the drinking water network with another single-use washing strip;
- sufficient drying time for these floors and surfaces is allowed;
- floors and surfaces must be disinfected with diluted bleach with a single-use washing strip different from the two previous ones.
- the waste produced by the contaminated person follows the conventional disposal route.
Awareness and work instructions
The employer must ensure that the safety instructions and barrier gestures are regularly reminded to employees, either verbally or by posting.
In particular, the employer must ensure that a line manager, with the necessary authority, skills and resources, is present in the workplace to check that employees are respecting barrier gestures.
If in doubt about the state of health of an employee, it is recommended to send him home and/or to call, in the event of serious symptoms, the appeal services by calling 15.
Prevention of previously identified risks
The other risks existing in the company must of course not be forgotten by the employer.
All of the above recommendations are naturally not exhaustive and must be adapted to the company's activity.
Job advice sheets for employees and employers by professional sector or by job, regularly updated, are available on the website of the Ministry of Labor.
