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H1N1 & Influenza Guidance for Businesses

November 11th, 2009

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Department of Labor announced a new guidance for businesses to plan for and respond to the upcoming flu season. The guidance is designed to help employers prepare now for the impact that seasonal and 2009 H1N1 influenza could have this fall and winter on their employees and operations.

Employers' plans should address such points as encouraging employees with flu-like symptoms or illness to stay home, operating with reduced staffing, and possibly having employees who are at higher risk of serious medical complications from infection work from home, according to the CDC guidance.

There are many actions that can be taken to help reduce the spread of flu. Here are a few:

  1. Regular and frequent hand washing
  2. Routine cleaning of commonly touched surfaces
  3. If employees are sick, they need to be encouraged to stay home
  4. If people begin to experience flu-like symptoms at work, they should be sent home and possibly encouraged to seek medical treatment.

One of the most important things that employers can do is to make sure their human resources and leave policies are flexible and follow public health guidance.

Employers should review sick leave policies and ensure employees understand them, according to the guidance. Employers should try to make sick leave policies flexible for workers who may have to stay home with ill family members or if a child's school is closed, the CDC says.

Employers also might cancel non-essential face-to-face meetings and travel, and space employees farther apart, the report says. And employees who are at higher risk for flu complications might be allowed to work from home or stay home if the flu is severe, it says.

"Keeping our nation's workers safe is a top priority," said Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth Harris, who participated in the announcement. "Faced with a renewed H1N1 challenge during the coming flu season, we are developing tools that will help ensure America's workers stay healthy and our businesses remain viable."

Employers must become familiar with standards applicable to their workplaces.

Contact George Rex, Safety & Health Compliance, for more information, or you can read more Safety Works News.