Occupational health and safety protection standards for companies
The duty to take care of the Health and Safety of workers in their work functions has existed in all the countries of the region for years, but one of the lessons that COVID-19 leaves us is that these measures take on even greater importance to guarantee the sustainability of the company in a century that promises great challenges for the well-being of people.
Companies must anticipate and be clear about how to act in the event of any eventuality that may affect their collaborators today more than ever. The reasons are clear, on the one hand there is a scientific consensus that this century will be accompanied by new diseases for the human being, since more and more populations come into contact with wild areas and ecosystems to which they are not accustomed, it will also increase the frequency of extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, frosts and storms as a result of climate change.
On the other hand, the response to most of these events supposes some type of reorganization of the population, in the case of contagious diseases such as COVID-19, the main measures are social distancing, and the operation of the production lines of the most segmented and least agglomerated way possible. In other eventualities such as storms, frosts or floods, it is usual to respond with isolation measures, shelter or even evacuations, but something that they all have in common is that they imply a certain degree of displacement and a change in the routine of work operations.
Therefore, the companies with the most opportunities to remain productive in this scenario of changing conditions will be those that can prevent these events and have a clear plan on how to act when the emergency is unavoidable.
This anticipation and prompt response is achieved by applying the same measures required by current health and safety protection standards, so their application is not only necessary to ensure the continuity of the company, but they are mandatory from a legal point of view. . Among these measures we mainly find:
- Have a Commission made up of the administrators and workers of the organization, which is in charge of identifying all the risks for health and safety that exist in the company and is in charge of mitigating them.
- Have emergency care plans and contingencies that the company may face. As well as internal programs that establish occupational health and safety rules to be followed by employees.
- Have clear rules on the cleaning and disinfection of work centers and tools.
- Apply teleworking policies to all positions in which it is feasible, in response to the health guidelines that have been issued in the face of the most recent pandemic.