New Ways of Working

Employers must comply with the protocols according related to their type of business, as provided by their jurisdiction’s local health authority.

In addition, Resolution No. 4/2021 states that employees who choose not to be vaccinated must act in good faith and do everything they can to reduce any possible harm their decision may cause to employers. Therefore, the employer may take measures to reduce possible risks and provide covid-19-safe working environments (for example, regular testing of employees), but those measures may not cause differences or discriminatory acts between employees.

Regarding an employer’s duty of safety and prevention, employers are advised to train cleaning personnel (and employees in general) on the recommendations issued by the Ministry of Health, such as: frequent handwashing with water and soap; covering both nose and mouth with the elbow fold when coughing or sneezing; opening doors and windows to ventilate rooms; and frequently cleaning objects and surfaces that are used often.

Employers main obligations are: enforcing social distancing between employees; providing cleaning and disinfection supplies; providing face masks, gloves, hand sanitiser, water and soap; and implementing a daily and hourly cleaning process for all touch-point surfaces and the office itself.

Also, it is reasonable for employers to request temperature tests before allowing entry to their premises. In this sense, employees’ right to privacy (regarding the information related to the health tests) is superseded by the health rights of third parties. Employees must be properly informed about policies regarding how temperature tests are conducted. Due to the protective nature of Argentine regulations, it is advisable to have the policies in Spanish or in a double-column format to avoid its challenge before the courts.

Under workplace health and safety laws, all employers are required to manage the risk of covid-19 to workers and others in the work environment.

This requires that employers:

• comply with any national and state public health directions;
• promote physical distancing and hygiene measures in the workplace;
• require that staff raise any concerns about the risk of contracting COVID-19 immediately with the employer and work with them to identify solutions;
• monitor the extent of covid-19 in the community and share any updates and advice from state and federal authorities regularly with workers;
• actively support flexible work arrangements, including working from home or other locations where it is reasonably practicable for such arrangements to be introduced.

Yes. The employer’s duty of care implies that they are obliged to implement measures to protect their workforce. This duty of care is a general duty to protect workers' interests. It covers not only the protection of the workers' lives but also their health.

Over the past year, the employer’s obligation to fulfil this duty was regularly specified depending on the prevailing covid situation at that time. There were rules on the wearing of masks as well as on social distancing in the office.

Several prevention guides on covid-19-safe working environments have been published since then. Employers can easily take guidance from these prevention guides to comply with their duty of care. For example, a covid-19 checklist for SMEs was published to ensure a safe and healthy working environment. This checklist can be found here. For specific questions on worker protection, employers, as well as workers, may consult the Labour Inspectorate.

Furthermore, the implementation of a covid prevention plan has become mandatory for certain employers. Every facility with more than 51 employees now must implement a framework to prevent further infections. In many cases, a covid appointee must be selected as well. These measures serve to minimise the incidence of infection.

Recently, new legal measures for the workplace were implemented due to an increasing number of cases. In workplaces where physical contact is possible, the so-called 3-G rule must now be observed. This means that employees must either be vaccinated, recovered from covid-19 or recently tested (with a negative result) to be on the company premises. The employer must also carry out random checks.

Employers have a legal obligation to provide a safe and healthy working environment, which follows from the Act of 4 August 1996 on wellbeing at work. Several provisions of this law are also included in CBA No. 149 on compulsory teleworking during the coronavirus crisis. In addition, the authorities have published a generic guide on the prevention of the spread of the covid-19 virus, which is supplemented by the joint committees of different sectors. This guide contains a list of measures and how to implement them, which employers can use, such as social distancing, hygienic measures, how to deal with ill employees and how to organise lunch breaks. The guide is regularly updated and is available in English (however this version is less up-to-date).

Employers have the legal duty to provide a safe and healthy working environment. That said, companies have been advised by public authorities to act preventively, informing their employees and third parties on protective health measures (eg, hand washing, use of hand sanitisers and masks, and keeping a safe distance). In addition, employers may also adopt a remote-working model (or at least a hybrid arrangement) to encourage social distancing. Apart from that, employers could always offer courses, presentations and training providing information regarding the importance of vaccination.

The French Labour Code imposes on all employers a general obligation to protect the health and safety of their employees. Employers must, therefore, take all possible measures to prevent employees from endangering their health. To that effect, employers must update the “DUER” (a mandatory document that identifies and evaluates all occupational risks) to identify situations, conditions or workstations that could lead to transmission of the virus, and propose measures to avoid such risks.

The employer can take the following measures to provide Covid-19 safe working environments:

• Remind employees to systematically respect the rules of hygiene and social distancing;
• Take all necessary organisational measures to limit the risk of crowding, crossing (flow of people) and concentration (density) of staff and clients to facilitate physical distancing;
• Remind employees to wear a mask;
• Make alcohol gel available to employees;
• Ventilate the premises and clean surfaces regularly;
• Provide floor markings to enforce social distancing;
• Define a gauge (4m² per person as an indication) specifying the number of people who can be present simultaneously in the same enclosed space while respecting the rules of physical distancing and wearing a mask;
• Provide for separation devices between employees or between employees and other people present in the workplace (clients, service providers) such as transparent separations;
• Promote the vaccination of employees, including during working hours; and
• Check compliance with vaccination requirements for health professionals and compliance with screening requirements by employees engaged in certain activities (bars and restaurants, public transport etc), based on the proof presented to them.

Based on their duty of care, the provisions of the Labour Protection Act (sections 3 (1), 5 (1) ArbSchG) and the current Corona Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance (Corona-ArbSchV), employers are required to take effective measures to protect the health of their employees following a risk assessment. In this respect, employers must take all appropriate technical and organisational measures to reduce the number of employees meeting each other in the workplace. The simultaneous use of rooms by several persons must be reduced to the minimum necessary for business operations.

Additionally, the BMAS has issued the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Standard and the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Regulation to specify employers' obligations. If employers comply with these specifications, they may assume that they meet the requirements for health protection in connection with the covid-19 pandemic. If employers choose a different solution, that solution must ensure at least the same level of health protection for employees. The recommended measures include maintaining a minimum distance between employees, reducing room occupancy, working in permanent teams, using remote contacts, increasing ventilation, intensifying surface cleaning, and providing additional hand disinfectant. If the required minimum distance between employees in the workplace cannot be observed, for instance due to the impossibility of installing physical barriers between work stations, employees must at least wear a face mask, which the employer must provide. The applicable principle is that technical measures take priority over organisational measures, and organisational measures take priority over personal measures.

Employers have a general duty of care towards their personnel, which means that they have a legal duty to provide a safe working environment.

An essential obligation for employers is to comply with legal provisions regarding employees’ access to the workspace. More specifically, under the  covid-19 legal framework, for employees to enter their employer’s premises, they should undergo self-testing once a week. Vaccinated employees who have been issued with a vaccination certificate are exempt from self-testing, provided that they can produce such a certificate to gain entry to the workplace. If they do not wish to show this certificate to their employer, they must undergo weekly testing.

Furthermore, employers must maintain all covid-19-related practices (face coverings, social distancing, compliance with maximum participant obligations in physical meetings, etc) within the company’s premises.

Yes; employers have a duty to ensure a safe working environment under statute and common law, which would include providing covid-19-safe working environments. The Department of Health has released several measures concerning workplace safety to prevent the spread of covid-19, which include guidelines on maintaining good personal hygiene and immunity, how to deal with visitors, maintaining workplace hygiene, maintaining toilet hygiene, maintaining the hygiene of overnight rooms, cleaning and disinfecting, proper use of bleach and proper use of masks. The full list of measures can be found here.

On a practical basis, many employers in Hong Kong have enforced one or more of the following measures:

• encouraging employees to work from home when covid-19 infections are at a peak;
• splitting the workforce into teams and only allowing one team at a time into the workplace;
• enforcing the wearing of masks in the workplace;
• keeping a social distance of 1.5 metres between desks or chairs;
• not serving food and drink at internal and external events;
• restricting internal and external meetings to small numbers;
• not permitting visitors;
• cancelling all non-essential business travel;
• postponing any business conferences or seminars;
• moving events online; and
• bringing in vaccination policies.

This list is not exhaustive.

Employers have a duty of care to provide a safe work environment for their employees. Employers may be held liable in the event of a failure to provide safe working conditions, including those prescribed under the health and safety-related provisions of the labour laws, both in factories and commercial establishments.

Some of the practical steps that employers can take in this regard are:

• tracking government rules and guidelines recommended by industry bodies concerning prevention of covid-19 at workplaces at office reopening;
• implementing policies on prevention and management of covid-19 positive cases in the workplace following applicable government guidelines and industry practices;
• effectively and clearly communicating to employees regarding the employer’s protocols around covid-19 preventive measures, testing and vaccination through the organisation of sensitisation programmes, etc.;
• re-opening offices in a phased manner, staggering shift, working or lunch hours for employees attending offices to avoid crowding at the workplace;
• regularly sanitising the workplace and disinfecting commonly used areas such as elevators, lavatories and commonly touched areas such as doorknobs and elevator buttons;
• adopting touch-free mechanisms for commonly touched areas such as handwashing facilities, sanitiser and doorknobs;
• providing handwashing and sanitizing facilities at all common places in the workplace;
• preventing crowding in elevators through encouragement to use stairs;
• allowing employees whose nature of work permits working from home to continue to do so, or work from the office on certain days of the week only;
• ensuring temperature scanning of visitors and employees visiting the workplace at entry points to rule out the entry of persons showing symptoms of covid-19;
• mandating social-distancing norms in the workplace through visual aids such as specifying safe distances on the floor, drawing circles indicating safe distance for the formation of queues in cafeterias and marking alternative seats in rows as unavailable;
• appointing dedicated individuals to ensure all covid-19 appropriate behaviours are observed by employees at the workplace, and to liaise with relevant health and government authorities in the event of a case of Covid-19 infection at the workplace;
• liaising with hospitals and medical centres to ensure complete vaccination of the workforce and their dependents before recalling the workforce to the office with full attendance requirements; and
• encouraging employees to self-monitor their health and report to HR or a dedicated officer whenever any employee is experiencing any Covid-19 symptoms at the workplace, to ensure prompt containment of infection.

In some jurisdictions, such as Tamil Nadu[1] (Chennai), Bangalore[2] and West Bengal[3] (Kolkata), the responsibility to ensure the vaccination of employees has been imposed on employers through local orders. Additionally, in Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune), only fully vaccinated employees are permitted to be physically present in private offices[4]. Also, the Maharashtra government has provided extensive directions for individuals and workplaces in relation to mandatory covid-appropriate behaviour in the workplace, which includes mandatory wearing of masks, ensuring provision of thermal screening at entry points and handwash or sanitisers at entry and exit points and common places, frequent sanitisation of the workplace, use of the Aarogya setu app by all employees, making information available regarding nearby hospitals or clinics authorised to treat employees with covid-19, sending symptomatic employees for check-up to such authorised facilities and earmarking quarantine areas for isolating symptomatic employees.[5]

Employers have an ongoing legal duty to provide a safe working environment. The government has issued detailed guidance setting out the minimum public health measures required in every place of work to prevent the spread of covid-19, to facilitate the re-opening of workplaces following temporary closures, and to provide for the ongoing safe operation of those workplaces.

This is contained in the Work Safely Protocol updated in November 2021 (see here) and provides guidance on ventilation and vaccinations as part of the range of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well as information on how to approach the use of antigen testing in the workplace.

Employers are responsible for guaranteeing a safe workplace for all employees under the provisions of article 2087 of the Italian Civil Code. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this obligation has required employers to develop specific strategies in order to prevent and reduce the risk of contagion in terms of i) organisational measures, ii) prevention and protection measures and iii) specific measures preventing epidemic outbreaks. This should be done setting out a specific “Health Protocol” adapted to its own specific situation and with the assistance of the Head of the Protection and Prevention Service (“RSPP”) and the company’s occupational doctor (“medico competente”). The measures included in the Health Protocol depend on the business of the company and activities carried out and may consist in:

• implementing remote working programmes as much as possible (specifically smart working);
• reorganising workspaces: for those areas where several employees work simultaneously, innovative solutions should be adopted such as the relocation of workstations that are appropriately spaced and the introduction of separating barriers (e.g., plexiglass panels, furniture);
• establishing scheduled rotations among employees in order to avoid full employee attendance on the company premises;
• developed cleaning, handwashing and hygiene procedures;
• using masks and maintaining social distancing;
• prohibiting access to the work place for employees with COVID-19 symptoms in the last 14 days or with a temperature exceeding 37.5 ° C;
• limiting third party access to the offices.

Furthermore, it is critical to inform employees about the safety measures that have been implemented.

©Toffoletto De Luca Tamajo, ©Ius Laboris

The Mexican authorities have issued guidelines and general provisions for the reopening of workplaces during the pandemic. Employers must issue and implement an emergency plan within the workplace to prevent the transmission of covid-19.

The workplace emergency plan must include provisions to guide, train, and instruct employees to prevent and control the transmission of covid-19, which must include the following matters: 

• promoting health: employees and employers must frequently wash their hands with water and soap or use antibacterial gel; cover their nose and mouth; not cough, sneeze, or spit without covering their mouths; not touch their face with dirty hands; clean and disinfect tools, seats, tables, and facilities;  and ventilate and allow the passage of sunlight. Furthermore, employers must provide their employees with sanitary products and equipment; assign work shifts in a fashion that reduces contact between employees; and verify that working stations have at least 1.5 or 2 metres between them;
• encourage the maintenance of 1.5 metres between employees;
• entrance and exit control with the measurement of employees' temperatures;
• stay at home if required by federal or local authorities; and
• stay at home if experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms.

Additionally, a company representative must be appointed as the person responsible for informing all employees of orders issued by the relevant health authorities. Employers must identify: employees who are vulnerable to covid-19; work and duties that may be carried out outside the workplace; functions that may lead to a higher risk of infection; and essential activities that may continue at the workplace. Employers must prepare employees to carry out activities and use technologies if a remote-working scheme is implemented, and provide them with the necessary tools.

Employers must place information regarding covid-19, such as symptoms, preventive measures, and general provisions, in a visible location within the workplace. Furthermore, they must also provide their employees with emergency telephone numbers in case of infection.

Yes, an employer has a statutory duty of care to provide employees with a safe and healthy (working) environment. Employers must inform employees of the do’s and don’ts and of precautionary measures to take - including ensuring that employees do not come into contact with infectious employees. Employers must, therefore, inform their employees of the dangers of covid-19 in the workplace and the best way of preventing infection, such as the taking of appropriate hygiene measures, appropriate ventilation of the workspace and avoiding physical contact such as shaking hands. There are no nationwide guidelines on how to inform employees about the dangers of covid-19, but the company doctor could advise on this.

Should work take place at the office during the pandemic, employers are expected to take measures to reduce the chance of infection and to stagger employees’ working hours. For example, adequate hygiene measures must be taken in the office and employees must be able to work at an appropriate distance from each other. Furthermore, as a temporary emergency measure, it is required that employees should socially distance (at least 1.5 metres) in the office. If this is not possible, medical facemasks should be worn (preferably at least Type II or IIR), even when seated.

Yes. During the pandemic, to reduce headcount and ensure distancing at the office, employers can order remote work if the employee has a suitable environment for working at home. At the employer’s premises, disinfection liquids and social distancing (eg, 1.5 m between desks) help provide safe working conditions. Employees must wear protective masks at work unless employers decide otherwise.

Yes, employers must protect the health and safety of employees; adopt health and safety measures that arise from the law or collective bargaining agreements in the workplace; and provide employees with information and training to prevent work accidents or illness. Besides these general obligations in the Portuguese Labour Code, there are also specific obligations imposed on employers to prevent the spread of covid-19.

The ACT released a set of recommendations to employers to adapt workplaces and protect employees during the covid-19 pandemic. It is recommended that employers consider measures such as staggering schedules as much as possible, redistributing tasks, teleworking, employee rotation or setting different break times if the workspace does not allow for social distancing.

Furthermore, according to the ACT, it is important that indoor workplaces are ventilated, preferably by strengthening natural ventilation, and that the maintenance and cleaning of ventilation and air conditioning systems are guaranteed. Employers should also ensure, whenever necessary and possible, that the layout of workstations is changed to maintain social distancing and reduce contact between employees. If this is not possible, the ACT recommends creating a physical barrier between employees using, for example, partitions.

Employers must also ensure that employees have access to personal protective equipment to prevent occupational risks. Moreover, employers must maintain an updated contingency plan.

Employers have a general obligation to their employees to maintain health and safety standards, as well as take steps to prevent the spread of covid-19.  The Qatari Labour Law (Law No. 14/2004, as amended) provides that “the employer shall take all precautionary measures for protecting the workers during the work from any injury or disease that may result from the work performed in his establishment or from any accident, defect or breakdown in the machinery and equipment therein or from fire” (Article 100).

Employers should consider each employee's individual risk factors and make reasonable and proportionate adjustments to protect vulnerable employees where possible. The form that such adjustments take will of course very much depend on the circumstances. Where an employee's role can be readily performed remotely, the adjustment may be to enable the employee to continue working from home when others return to the workplace. If the employee's role needs to be performed from the workplace, the adjustment may be adjusting the employee's working hours such that they are not in the office during "peak" times or finding an isolated space in the office for them to work.

Employers should also bear in mind that several measures remain in force like face mask-wearing, increased sanitation in the workplace and social distancing.

Employers have a general obligation to their employees to maintain health and safety standards, as well as taking steps to prevent the spread of covid-19. The MHRSD has also mandated that all public and private sector workers will need to have received a covid-19 vaccine to return to the workplace from 1 August 2021.

Imposing a requirement to take the covid-19 vaccination would require the employee’s consent. Consider employee concerns, as well as whether employees perform a role that can be undertaken from home, and if not what are the alternatives.

Employers should also bear in mind that several measures remain in force like mask-wearing, increased sanitation in the workplace and social distancing.

Yes, they do. Under article 7 of Law 2/2021, in addition to the general obligations on health and safety, employers must:

• implement ventilation, cleaning and disinfection measures appropriate to the characteristics and intensity of use of the workplace;
• make available to workers soap and water, hydroalcoholic gels or disinfectants;
• implement working conditions, including the arrangement of workstations and organisation of shifts, as well as the use of common areas, in such a way as to guarantee a minimum interpersonal distance of 1.5 metres. When this is not possible, workers must be provided with protective equipment appropriate to the level of risk;
• implement measures to avoid massive gatherings of people, both workers and clients or users, at workplaces; and
• implement measures for the progressive return in person to the workplace and encourage remote working, when the nature of the work allows it.

Employers must ensure a safe working environment and take measures as deemed appropriate to prevent ill-health and accidents in the workplace. It is up to employers to assess what measures are necessary. To satisfy this obligation, they must assess the working environment to identify any health and safety risks. If there is a risk of covid-19 infection in the office, appropriate measures could include implementing remote work for employees, enforcing social distancing between employees or other routines that minimise the risk of getting covid in the workplace, for example cleaning services.  

According to the SCO, employers are obliged to take all necessary and appropriate measures to protect the health and personal integrity of their employees. In particular, this signifies that facilities and work procedures must be organised in such a way as to protect employees from health hazards and overwork. In addition, employees must be consulted about employers' health protection measures and are required to assist employers in implementing health protection regulations.

The Federal Office for Public Health (FOPH) has issued guidelines for employers to maintain a safe work environment and protect employees during the pandemic. This means that employers must ensure that their employees comply with remote-working obligations and with hygiene and distancing recommendations.

However, where possible (ie, technically possible and without incurring unreasonable costs), employees must work from home.

Further, where remote working is not possible, or is not obligatory, employers also must introduce additional measures applying the STOP principles (Substitution, Technical measures, Organisational measures and Personal protective equipment), such as physical separation, separate teams, regular airing and ventilation or masks. 

In the scope of the duty to protect employees, employers must take all necessary occupational health and safety measures and protect employees’ health, and physical and mental integrity. Also, as per the Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers must protect the occupational health and safety of employees. Employers must provide covid-19-safe working environments as much as is practicable. The practical steps that may be taken by employers would vary depending on the features of each workplace. However, certain governmental authorities published several guidelines during the pandemic, and employers may choose to comply with the recommendations set out under these documents to ensure the minimum protection. These publications mainly focus on emergency planning, cleaning and hygiene rules, personal protective equipment, and advice on travel and meetings.

Employers have a general obligation to their employees to maintain health & safety standards, as well as take steps to prevent the spread of covid-19.

Employers should consider each employee's risk factors and make reasonable and proportionate adjustments to protect vulnerable employees where possible. The form that such adjustments take will very much depend on the circumstances. Where an employee's role can be readily performed remotely, the adjustment may be to enable the employee to continue working from home when others return to the workplace. If the employee's role needs to be performed from the workplace, the adjustment may be adjusting the employee's working hours such that they are not in the office during "peak" times or finding an isolated space in the office for them to work.

Employers should also bear in mind that several measures remain in force such as the wearing of face masks, increased sanitation in the workplace and social distancing.

Employers have an ongoing legal duty to provide a safe working environment.

The HSE has issued extensive guidance on how employers can implement safe working spaces: see here for an entry point. This guidance is updated semi-regularly and contains links to specific guidance in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (where the guidance may differ slightly from that published in England).

In general, employers must do the following:

• identify what work activity or situations might cause transmission of coronavirus (covid-19);
• think about who could be at risk – this could include workers, visitors, contractors and delivery drivers;
• decide how likely it is that someone could be exposed; and
• identify the controls needed to reduce the risk.

In relation to identifying risks, employers must undertake a covid-19 specific risk assessment (which must be done in writing if the employer has five or more employees): see here. The risk assessment, and any workplace policies to mitigate the risks, must be shared in advance with employees, workers or their workplace representatives (if any), who should be consulted on its contents.

Other covid-19 health and safety guidance has been published by each of the UK’s four public health agencies, for example relating to adequate ventilation in indoor spaces (which includes workplaces). The home pages for the four organisations can be found as follows: In England, the UK Health Security agency (which has replaced Public Health England) along with another new agency, the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities - see here and here) Public Health Scotland (here), Public Health Wales (here) and in Northern Ireland the Public Health Agency (here).

Employers have duties under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and state and local laws (mini-OSHA) to ensure safe working environments.  This includes completing covid-19 Prevention Plans and complying with reporting obligations.  In addition, many industry-specific standards also exist, such as OSHA’s covid-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), generally applicable to the healthcare industry.

Up-to-date information on the USA’s response to the pandemic, including State-level news and developments, can be found at Littler’s covid hub here.