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- Employment Case Law – each month we review a number of interesting employment law cases and consider their implications for organisations. This month we look at Key Considerations for Undertaking a Workplace Investigation. Read more >>>
- Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Decisions – each month we look at and review the decisions from the WRC. This provides a valuable insight into the types of discrimination cases before the WRC and the decisions that are issued. Read more >>>
- What to Keep an Eye Out For – what is new, changing, potentially changing or what you may have missed. Read more >>>
Coronavirus and the Workplace
Four more patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to eight. As a result, this week, the British government has declared the new coronavirus to be a serious and imminent threat to public health.
Whilst there is yet to be a confirmed case of the coronavirus in Ireland, the risk continues to heighten. This week saw over 1,000 employees in recruitment company, Indeed, being told to work from home due to virus precautions. The company stressed that there are no confirmed cases of infection, however they did say that one of its employees in Singapore may have been exposed to coronavirus after their family members visited a facility caring for a coronavirus patient.
Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Individuals are advised to be wary of these symptoms and seek immediate medical attention should such symptoms occur.
Taking such alerts into consideration, it is recommended that any Organisations who may have employees traveling for work (or those who may have been abroad on holidays) should be mindful of health and safety for employees too whilst they are traveling, and/or upon their return to the workplace.
Employers should advise employees to strictly adhere to all travel advice which can be found on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website (https://www.dfa.ie/travel/travel-advice/), and to practice usual precautions whilst traveling.
For example you can reduce the general risk of acute respiratory infections while travelling by:
- avoiding close contact with people suffering from acute respiratory infections;
- frequent handwashing, especially after direct contact with ill people or their environment;
- avoiding close contact with live or dead farm or wild animals;
- travellers with symptoms of acute respiratory infection should practice cough etiquette (maintain distance, cover coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues or clothing, and wash hands).