QHA_Sep-2020_Online

TRAINING AND SAFETY
with Ross Tims
COVID-19 IS A WORKPLACE HAZARD
QHA REVIEW | 38
This is such a fast moving and infectious virus that
between the time I write this article to the time you
read it, the whole game could have changed. We
could be in all sorts of strife, like Victoria is now. One
thing we have to remember is that our health and
safety obligations in the workplace haven’t changed, in
that we retain the responsibility to keep the workplace
safe for our staff and patrons.
The waters are a little bit muddied in terms of
parameters here because it’s essentially being
regulated in Queensland by four government entities
e.g. Health, Police, OLGR and WHSQ (not forgetting
the politicians in charge). We’ve gone through the
lockdown stages for a few months and now we’re
slowly trying to return to normal, although I’d suggest
that a new normal has replaced the old one for the
next year or two. It’s a little bit like the unknown
knowns, if you recall the terminology from a few years
back.
You’ve done your COVID Safe Checklist, and your
WHS Plan, and are now implementing the COVID-19
Safe Plan for Hotels. A part of the latter, and
something we shouldn’t lose sight of, is our obligation
to provide a safe working environment for our workers.
Without just repeating what’s listed in the plan, there
are some key points that need to be emphasised,
especially those that have impacted significantly on our
southern neighbours.
The major one seems to be that if any staff are feeling
ill or a little under weather, they should not come to
work, to potentially protect others from contamination.
This is a pandemic where frequently those infected
show no overt signs of illness. That’s obviously a hard
one to manage, but if that’s the case it leads into other
measures that can be used to protect workmates.
Any overt respiratory symptons, or changes like losing
the sense of taste and smell, it’s off for a test and selfisolate
for a period of time.
Next is regular hand washing with soap or alcoholbased
hand sanitiser and the promotion of good
hygiene practices. Make sure you have enough
supplies to go around for both staff and patrons.
Regularly clean high contact surfaces both back and
front of house.
I was asked the other day whose responsibility would it
be to supply PPE if we all had to wear masks in public
and in the workplace, if decreed by government. My
first thought with that is, if we got to the stage where
hotel staff had to wear a mask at work, there’s every
chance that the industry would be closed again, like
Victoria.
The fact is though, to answer that question, it’d
probably be a shared responsibility. The staff member
would be responsible for their own mask in public,
and at work, they would used one supplied by the
business. Currently, if you require workers to use PPE
at work (whatever that might be), then you are obliged
to supply it and ensure that it is worn.
I’ve been to a few hotels lately and despite the
hassle of recording details, social distancing, alcohol
handwash etc it seemed to me that the ones who
were doing it right, and telling you what was going
on as soon as you walked in the door, inspired some
confidence that you were being protected by your
local publican and staff.