Dos

• Businesses must do the following to restrict the spread of Swine Flu:
  • Develop policies that encourage ill workers to stay at home without fear of any reprisals.
  • Develop other flexible policies to allow workers to telework (if feasible) and create other leave policies to allow workers to stay home to care for sick family members or care for children if schools close.
  • Provide resources and a work environment that promotes personal hygiene. For example, provide tissues, no-touch trash cans, hand soap, hand sanitizer, disinfectants and disposable towels for workers to clean their work surfaces.
  • Provide education and training materials in an easy to understand format and in the appropriate language and literacy level for all employees.
  • Instruct employees who are well but who have an ill family member at home with the flu that they can go to work as usual. These employees should monitor their health every day, and notify their supervisor and stay home if they become ill. Employees who have a certain underlying medical condition or who are pregnant should promptly call their health care provider for advice if they become ill.
  • Encourage workers to obtain a seasonal influenza or a Swine Flu vaccine, if it is appropriate for them according to medical recommendations. This helps to prevent illness from seasonal influenza strains that may circulate at the same time as the 2009 H1N1 flu.
  • Encourage employees to get the 2009 H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available if they are in a priority group according to medical recommendations. Consider granting employees time off from work to get vaccinated when the vaccine is available.
  • Provide workers with up-to-date information on influenza risk factors, protective behaviors, and instruction on proper behaviors (for example, coughs etiquette; avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth; and hand hygiene).
  • Plan to implement practices to minimize face-to-face contact between workers if advised by the local health department. Consider the use of such strategies as extended use of e-mail, websites and teleconferences, encouraging flexible work arrangements (for example, telecommuting or flexible work hours) to reduce the number of workers who must be at the work site at the same time or in one specific location.
  • If an employee does become sick while at work, place the employee in a separate room or area until they can go home, away from other workers. If the employee needs to go into a common area prior to leaving, he or she should cover coughs/sneezes with a tissue or wear a facemask if available and tolerable. Ask the employee to go home as soon as possible.

Don’ts

• Businesses must not take the disease threat lightly nor should they create a sense of panic amongst employees.
• Businesses must not devalue the lives of employees and put money before human life.
• Businesses must not shirk from their social responsibilities and ignore pandemic alerts or the safety of employees and their families.
• Businesses must not ignore sick employees and their medical or financial needs.

Acknowledgements: WebMD.com, Data & information released by WHO / US CDC, IMA – Pune chapter, MOHFW – India website