Guidelines issued to the management of factories and establishments
In
the backdrop of the catastrophic outbreak of COVID-19, the Ministry of Labour
and Employment of India on 20 March 2020[1], has advised the Employers
of Public/ Private Establishments to extend their coordination by not terminating
their employees, particularly, casual or contractual workers from job or reduce
their wages. If any worker takes leave, he should be deemed to be on duty
without any consequential deduction in wages for this period. Further, if the
place of employment is to be made non-operational due to COVID-19, the
employees of such unit will be deemed to be on duty.
The
Government of Karnataka, on 22 March 2020[2] ordered that all shops,
commercial establishments, workshops, godowns dealing with non-essential
services be closed. And all labour intensive industries must work at 50% of
their strength on rotation basis. The Government has also advised that the
employers do not remove any worker on this account and to sanction paid leave
on these days to the remaining workers.
The
Government of Telengana, vide a notification[3] has ordered for closure of
all shops and establishments, except as notified, between the period from 22
March 2020 to 31 March 2020 and declared it as a paid holiday for all
categories of employees.
The
government of Tamil
Nadu, Haryana
and Odisha
have issued certain guidelines to the management of factories /establishments
in view of the prevailing COVID-19 outbreak. These guidelines have been issued
on in order to ensure strict compliance with the measures that every factory/
an establishment should necessarily undertake and follow so that it results in
containing the spread of COVID-19, as one of the major tools to prevent the
spread of COVID-19 is by way of observing social distancing, Therefore, one should
adopt highest level of hygiene and sanitation along with social distancing. The
following guidelines have been formulated on these lines:
- Promote frequent handwashing;
- Workers should be encouraged to stay home if they are sick;
- Never avail public transport facility to hospital, if suspected of possible exposure of COVID-19;
- Encourage
respiratory etiquettes;
- Establish
policies and practices which facilitate flexible worksite and work hours;
- Discourage
workers from using others’ phones, desks, tools or equipment’s to the extent
possible.
- Avoid
grouping;
- Prompt
identification and isolation of infected individuals;
- Educate
the employees to self-monitor signs and symptoms of COVID-19;
- The
district administration should be informed of any employees who has returned
from a foreign location or if someone from any foreign location has visited the
premises of the factory/establishment;
- Provide
personal protective equipments like prescribed nose mask, face shield /
goggles, gloves, apron etc.;
- Provide
facilities for safe disposal of the soiled nose mask, gloves, apron etc.
- Provide
facilities for drying clothing
- Resist
from insisting on the medical certificate of employees who are sick with acute
respiratory illness;
- Permit
employee to stay at home to take care of a family member who has been sick;
- Reduce
the number of employees on site, allowing them to maintain distance from one
another;
- Maintain
regular housekeeping practices including routine cleaning and disinfecting of
surfaces, equipment’s and other elements in the factory/establishment;
- Maintain
the canteens and dining rooms in proper hygienic condition;
- If
possible, all workers or visitors, to be screened by infrared thermometer
before entering the premises;
- Avoid
bio-metric attendance of the people;
- To
the extent possible, every establishment/factory should have an isolation room,
or atleast an area designated with closable doors;
- Creches
shall be specifically monitored and disinfected thoroughly; and
- Health
provisions prescribed in chapter III of the Factories Act, 1948 and Chapter VII
of The Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996 and related provisions
of the Tamil Nadu Factories Rules, 1950 and Tamil Nadu BOCW Rules, 2006 should
be strictly complied with;
- Factories
having public address/virtual display system may utilize the same for educating
workers on the measures for preventing possible exposure of COVID-19.
The
most effective way of containing the spread of COVID-19 is by way of observing ‘social
distancing’. Government establishments including Secretariat, Directorates,
District Level Offices and Sub-district Level Offices as well as certain private
establishments including shops, workshops and factories that remain operational
during the said period will have to comply with the following guidelines, in
order to break the chain of contact to prevent the further spread of the
disease. In this regard, the government of Odisha has formulated the following guidelines:
- Officers
of group A and B will be required to attend office. Employees belonging to
group C and D will be allowed to confine at home except the one’s identified by
the head of the office in the State Secretariat and Directorates. Employees
staying at home will have to strictly refrain from participate in any
gatherings restricted by the administration during this period. In the event of
any violation by the employee staying at home, the entire period will be
treated as ‘leave without pay’;
- VPN facilities to be extended to key officials;
- Directors, Collectors, SPs, Heads of District Level Offices as well as field offices are authorized to decide on the number of employees who are required to come to the office and on roaster and rotation, if required;
- Hand
sanitizer should be provided to all persons working in office;
- Optimum
sanitation level must be maintained in the office;
- Private
establishments, to allow its workers to work from home to the extent possible.
If employees are required to work in office, the employer should ensure that
the work is managed with minimum number of employees; and
- The
stipulations listed above, will not be applicable to agencies engaged in
providing essential and emergency services such as police, fire, jail, health,
so on and so forth. They will take all possible precautionary measures for
self-protection in their service.