Coronavirus: Businesses may need up to two weeks to prepare for staff to return to work safely, warns union

Exclusive: Lack of notice for firms described as ‘reckless’

Employers may need up to two weeks to prepare for people to return to work safely during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a senior trade union official has warned.

Dan Shears, national health, safety and environment director at the GMB union, said advice that employees who cannot work from home should return to the workplace this week was “reckless” as Boris Johnson was accused of sowing confusion over the relaxation of lockdown rules.

In a televised address on Sunday, the prime minister said people in sectors such as manufacturing and construction should be “actively encouraged” to go back to work on Wednesday – before official guidance had been published on keeping staff safe.

Advice was finally published by the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy on Monday evening, leaving firms less than two days to get ready.

The row came after Britain’s largest unions – Unison, Unite, the GMB and Usdaw, as well as the Trades Union Congress (TUC) – said they would not advise their 3 million members to return to work until health and safety measures were in place.

Mr Shears, whose union represents some 600,000 workers including ambulance drivers and manufacturing staff, said that many workplaces will need screens, barriers and floor markings for social distancing, as well as hand sanitiser and face masks for staff, which could take up to a fortnight to organise.

He told The Independent: “There’s no legislation around this, but employers have to assess the risk of workers being exposed to Covid-19, and implement ways of reducing that risk to the lowest level that they can achieve.

“In practice, that will require screens, barriers, floor marking, signage, hand sanitiser, face masks and potentially a whole range of other interventions.

“All of this will take time to procure and set up, so I would suggest at least a week and more likely two weeks, unless the employer had this equipment already in the workplace.”

Mr Shears criticised the prime minister’s vague suggestion on Sunday that people could go back to work, saying: “Employers whose workplaces are closed will need to implement these measures before anyone returns to work, so they need the maximum possible lead in time.

“Twelve hours notice was reckless in the extreme.”

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, also criticised the government for offering mixed messages, saying millions of people would be “completely dumbfounded”.

Any worker unsure of whether they were working in a safe environment “should not be pressured in going back to work”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the prime minister to provide “clarity and reassurance” to the public on plans for easing the lockdown as the new 60-page blueprint left questions over workplace safety and diverging messages from Scotland, Wales and England.

He said: “The prime minister said he was setting out a road map, but if we’re to complete the journey safely, a road map needs clear directions. So many of us have questions that need answering.”

Under the new advice, firms will need to carry out an inspection to show they are safe and place the certificate on display.

Bosses at workplaces such as construction sites, factories and takeaways have been told to maintain two-metre social distancing where possible, to clean more frequently and to erect barriers in shared spaces.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, said: “This guidance provides a framework to get the UK back to work in a way that is safe for everyone.

“These are practical steps to enable employers to identify risks that Covid-19 creates and to take pragmatic measures to mitigate them.”

Mr Johnson’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing that many firms had been taken steps to protect staff already, such a supermarkets which have erected perspex screens to protect cashiers.

The PM’s spokesman said: “If staff are concerned, they can register those concerns with the health and safety executive, who have existing powers. We want people to feel like they can go back to work safely.

“It’s for employers – who I do think have been hugely responsible so far – and employees to have a conversation and make sure that staff feel safe to go back to work.”

Meanwhile, chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to use a statement to the Commons on Tuesday to announce an extension to the Treasury’s Job Retention Scheme, with speculation that he may scale back support for furloughed workers from the current 80 per cent of salary.

Employers need assurance this week that the scheme will continue beyond the end of June to avoid the need to issue mass redundancy notices for that date.”