Stagger Shifts and Don’t Share Pens, U.K. to Tell Businesses

(Bloomberg) --

Companies looking to resume operations after the U.K. coronavirus lockdown is relaxed are set to be told to stagger shifts, enforce social distancing with tape on floors, and avoid sharing pens, people familiar with the matter said.

The government has written seven draft guidance papers covering different business environments to help people working in outdoor jobs, factories and in vehicles, among other scenarios.

The guidance is designed to help get swathes of the economy shuttered by the pandemic to operate again once ministers ease restrictions requiring people to stay mainly at home. The three-week extension to the initial lockdown is due to be reviewed on Thursday, though officials have cautioned against expecting an immediate lifting of the limits.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to unveil a “road map” for how the country will eventually start to return to normal until Sunday, one official said.

The proposals for businesses resuming operations include installing plastic screens in shops between customers and the cash register, advice to curtail hot-desking, and enforcing strict standards of hygiene, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity discussing unpublished documents.

But the U.K.’s Trades Union Congress pushed back on the draft guidelines, saying they would put people’s health at risk. There is no way to make sure employers stick to the rules and there’s no information on whether workers should wear protective equipment such as face masks, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said in an interview with Sky News. “The guidance as it currently stands is really weak,” she said.

Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, told reporters discussions are ongoing with businesses and unions.

‘Tyrannical’

Johnson is under pressure from members of his own Conservative Party to abandon a lockdown that has damaged the economy. Firms have made claims worth 8 billion pounds so far to the government’s furlough scheme, according to the latest figures, while prominent Tory MP Steve Baker wrote in the Telegraph newspaper lockdown rules are “absurd, dystopian and tyrannical.”

Speaking to reporters in Edinburgh on Monday, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the country will extend lockdown restrictions when they are reviewed by the U.K. leaders on May 7.

The U.K. is preparing a mass test, track and trace scheme to facilitate lifting the lockdown while keeping the pandemic under control, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock is expected to set out later on Monday how a new smartphone app will work as trials begin this week.

Slack also said the government is still reviewing antibody tests, which many scientists see as crucial for lifting the lockdown in the absence of a vaccine that may still be months or even years away. Progress is being made but no antibody test has met standards for approval, he said.

Under the back-to-work guidance, employers will also be required to produce a Covid-19 risk assessment. Two people familiar with the matter said there is some concern among employers about whether they will have liability.

As well as work outdoors, in vehicles and in factories, the papers covered shops, the leisure industry, indoor working and jobs with a customer focus, including going into people’s homes. The documents included photos of factory floors and an elevator with floor tape dividing it into four squares to illustrate how social distancing can be enforced.

Also on Monday:

• Johnson is due to tell a global coronavirus conference countries need to “pull together,” stressing that “the race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries, but the most urgent shared endeavor of our lifetimes”
• Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC radio China has questions to answer about how quickly it made the world aware of the extent of the coronavirus crisis, though he added that the time for a “post mortem” is after the pandemic is brought under control

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