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COVID-19 Updates

Rules to Prevent Contamination at Work

Publication: ZRVP

The Minister of Labor and Social Protection and the Minister of Health adopted the common order no. 3577/831/2020 on the measures for the prevention of contamination with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and for conducting of activity at work in work security and health conditions during the state of emergency.

What measures public and private sector employers must implement to prevent SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from spreading?

  • all employers shall retrain for work security and health all their employees who have stayed at home during the state of emergency, technical unemployment, telework, work from home. Conducting of activity in regime of telework or work from home may remain a priority;
  • employers shall review the prevention and protection plan, as well as their own work security and health instructions;
  • employers shall post at the entry and in the most visible places from their units the mandatory conduct rules for their employees and for all the persons who enter the premises organized by the employers and shall make sure that all the persons entering their premises comply with the protection measures established by these;
  • employers shall inform their employees, as priority by electronic means, of the risks of infection and spread of the virus, of the protection measures and of the social distancing rules to be applied in their units, as well as of the rules for the management of the situations when their employees or other persons having access to the workplace have symptoms of infection with SARS-CoV-2;
  • employers shall inform their employees of the universally valid precautions: maintaining of social distance, maintaining of rigorous hand hygiene, avoidance of touching their faces if they have not washed/disinfected their hands, maintaining of their breath hygiene, limitation of contact with other persons to maximum 15 minutes;
  • employers may provide specific individual equipment for protection against the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus;
  • in the case of employers with more than 50 employees conducting their activity in the same working area, employers may individualize the working hours of their employees so that between them there is an interval of minimum one hour at the start and at the end of the working hours, during minimum three hours, in shifts of minimum 20% of the personnel, without affecting the time of the normal working hours;
  • employers shall provide special passageways for access to the premises and for circulation to their employees, to avoid agglomeration in the working areas and shall establish rules to avoid the accidental situation of formation of spontaneous and unsecured groups of persons within the premises of their units;
  • employers shall limit the access to the common areas and shall ensure the observance of the social distancing rules in these areas, and, in the working places where their employees work with the public, they shall apply bands marking the recommended distance;
  • each employer shall appoint a person in charge with the checking of all persons entering the unit/institution;
  • employers shall forbid access in their units to any persons having symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection and shall interrupt any contact between the persons found within the premises of the unit with a symptomatic person;
  • employers shall permanently provide soap and hand disinfectant and shall display posters showing the correct way to wash one’s hands;
  • employers shall have disinfected the intensely used areas, such as: handrails, door handles, windows, as well as the common areas and working areas;
  • employers may create special spaces for employees belonging to vulnerable groups;
  • employers shall make sure that the lunch breaks are taken in shifts, in observance of the minimum distance;
  • employers shall require that the offices be ventilated at least once a day and avoid using the air-conditioning installation. If the air-conditioning installation is necessary to be used, they shall also have the air-conditioning installation nebulized and disinfected, outside the working hours;
  • employers shall have the working area arranged so that the physical distance between their employees can be kept. They may set up, where possible, plastic separators between the desks, if the desks are close to each other;
  • employers shall limit their employees’ going outside their working places only to the situations when these are strictly necessary for performing their activity;
  • employers shall make sure that any documents are circulated in their units preponderantly by electronic means;

Special measures to be implemented when an employee is suspected/confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2:

  • employees with respiratory symptoms and/or fever higher than 37.3o and/or altered general status, occurred during the working hours, shall be immediately isolated from the rest of their colleagues and sent to their domiciles or to medical units, depending on their condition;
  • if the time interval when a suspected/confirmed person was within the premises is shorter than 7 days:
    • all rooms where this spent a long time shall be closed;
    • such rooms shall be mechanically ventilated;
    • cleaning and disinfection shall be postponed for 24 hours;
  • if more than 7 days have passed since the suspected/confirmed person was within the premises:
    • no additional cleaning/disinfection is necessary;
    • the routine cleaning and disinfection measures shall be maintained;
  • the persons with whom the suspected/confirmed person was in prolonged contact shall be informed accordingly and such persons shall be isolated at their domiciles for 14 days;

What the employees’ obligations are?

  • employees shall comply with all the instructions provided by the prevention and protection plan and with their own work security and health instructions prepared by their employers;
  • employees shall wear the protection masks to cover their noses and mouths at work and shall accept the checking of their body temperature when entering the premises of their work units;
  • employees shall immediately inform their employers if they have, during the working hours, symptoms of infection with SARS-CoV-2; employees shall remain at home if before the start of their working hours they have symptoms of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and shall notify their employers accordingly;
  • if home isolation is required, any employee in this situation shall be on medical leave, based on the certificate issued by their family physician after the period of home isolation;
  • in case of institutionalized quarantine, employees shall return to work based on medical leave certificates, released based on the epidemiological endorsement issued by the Public Health Directorate of the county where such employee works/Bucharest Municipality, at the end of the quarantine period;
  • employees shall disinfect their working areas and the objects necessary to their own activity, shall wash and disinfect their hands;
  • employees shall use the walkways provided by their employers and shall avoid standing in the common areas;
  • employees shall frequently ventilate their enclosed working areas;
  • in case of work at home or telework, employees shall conduct their activity under the coordination of their employers and in accordance with their expertise and training, as well as with the instructions received from their employers;
  • employees shall avoid, as much as possible, communicating by printed documents, both within and outside the premises of their working units;

 

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