This includes offering staff the option to work from home
The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) has laid out a number of workplace safety tips for employers following a sudden uptick of COVID-19 cases in the country. The DOH in a media briefing suggested the implementation of alternative working arrangements for employees if feasible, among other recommendations to help stamp out the transmission of COVID-19.
The following suggestions are the following:
- Promote alternative working arrangements if possible
- Promote eating on one's desk, not in pantry
- Refresh employees on minimum public health standards (MPHS)
- Enforce MPHS and symptom screening
Alternative working arrangements should include providing employees the option to work from home if they want to, according to the DOH. It also said that safety officers should also be present in workplaces to ensure compliance to the MPHS among staff.
If an employee is under quarantine, the DOH urged employers to extend their own form of help to the staff.
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The recommendations were brought up to employers as more workers make their gradual return to workplaces following a holiday break, with DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire saying the department is expecting next infections to emerge from offices.
"This holiday season most of us were on vacation, had our reunions and gatherings with our family, and most of the infections now are coming from household and the community," said Vergeire.
"But we expect in the coming days we will be seeing infections in our workplaces because people will now be returning to work," she added.
Employees’ return to workplaces also comes as a recent increasing trend in new COVID-19 cases is observed in the Philippines, with 10,775 new cases on January 5, nearly double the new infections logged the day before, DOH reported.
Experts and authorities fear this could be due to an undetected community transmission of the Omicron variant, after a number of local cases were reported inside the country.
