Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021
13. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the responsibilities of employers in cases in which an employee contracts Covid-19 in the workplace; the duties of care in relation to same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5243/21]
View answerThe Work Safely Protocol sets out the minimum public health measures required for every place of work to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to facilitate the re-opening of workplaces following temporary closures and the ongoing safe operation of workplaces.
In instances where an employee begins to show symptoms of infection with COVID-19 while at work, or an employer is made aware of an employee’s infection, the Work Safely Protocol provides detailed guidance on how this should be managed by the employer in order to protect other members of the workforce. This guidance includes taking action such as isolating the worker and arranging transport home or to hospital for medical assessment if required. An employer must also carry out an assessment of the incident and arrange for appropriate cleaning of all work areas involved and co-operate with the Department of Public Health or HSE in relation to contact tracing. The full Work Safely Protocol is available on www.enterprise.ie
Separately, the recently introduced Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Biological Agents) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 539 of 2020), now place greater reporting requirements on employers in relation to categories of workers exposed to Biological Agents in the course of their normal work activities including exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the agent responsible for COVID-19. The Regulations now cover several specific types of work activities which were previously not covered by the Biological Agents Regulations.
Employees can contract COVID-19 through occupational exposure to the virus, for example, in a research laboratory or incidentally from work activities which by their nature involve potential specific exposure to the virus, for example, working with a COVID-19 patient, handling infected waste or carrying out diagnostic testing for COVID-19 in a laboratory. Under the Biological Agents Regulations where a person’s work activity involves occupational exposure to SARS-COV-2 an employer must carry out a specific “biological agent” risk assessment and, also, has reporting requirements where infection has been acquired by the employee.
The Health and Safety Authority is currently carrying out a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to support consideration of a proposal by the Board of the Health and Safety Authority to require employers to report cases of Covid-19 that are attributable to work activity to the Authority. This RIA will identify a range of possible options around this proposal including detailed information on the costs, benefits and impacts of each option. This information will provide the Board with a basis for a recommendation to be made to the Minister for the most appropriate way forward.
