Safety rules now outdated

Workplace safety rules written at the beginning of the pandemic are out of date, risking the health of essential workers and everyone working outside the home, says the TUC.

The BEIS business department published its Working safely during coronavirus (COVID) — or “COVID-secure” — guidance in the early stages of the pandemic.

But, the TUC points out, scientific understanding of how the virus spreads has changed and “the UK is now battling a strain that is far more easily transmitted”.

It calls on the government to urgently update the guidance to:

• reduce the number of people permitted in a space at any one time;

• require the wearing of face coverings in all indoor workplaces, except for workers who are exempt, and update guidance to the World Health Organization standard of three protective layers;

• expand the number of jobs where workers should use “FFP3” face masks, which remove 99% of particles, and ensure enough are available;

• return to the “gold standard” of two-metre social distancing wherever possible;

• require any work activity that can be completed outside to be conducted outdoors; and

• set a safety threshold for ventilation of indoor workplaces with outside air — at least 10 litres of outside air in offices per second per person, for example.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: ”With new strains of coronavirus spreading like wildfire, workplace safety rules must catch up.”