ST. LOUIS — The safety and legal risks for businesses will be many when they reopen after the Covid-19 economic shutdown, experts at the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm warn.
Bryan Cave labor and employment lawyers outlined the pitfalls in a teleconference with clients:
- Consult OSHA guidelines that require hand washing signs, prohibit sharing of desks and phones and outline needed ventilation. Also required: the identification and isolation of potentially infectious employees, Sara O'Keefe, one of the Bryan Cave lawyers, said.
- Comply with the CDC’s Guidelines in effect at the time of a return to work. For example, employers should ensure they have sufficient hand washing stations and supplies, tissue disposal options and appropriate postings regarding sanitation and hygiene.
- Consult your state's executive orders on reopening — 22 states already have them and "they are all over the board," she said. Included in many are mandatory 30-minute breaks for hand washing.
- Limit the number of people in waiting rooms or on elevators, with hand sanitizers available and adequate social distancing.
- Remove magazines and other reading materials from waiting areas.
- Clean after each visitor.
- In potentially congested areas, such as around a time clock, consider marking the floors for distancing. "You may need to relax tardy requirements," Goldstein said.
- Break rooms and lunch rooms: "Some states will require they be closed, at least initially," O'Keefe said.
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