What are you doing day to day to protect staff from Coronavirus?

[benedmonds]

Someone posted this on facebook, it would be nice if we had a UK version. 

https://www.tcia.org/TCIA/News/COVID-19/Tree-Care-Best-Practices-for-COVID-19.aspx  

 

Please try not to derail the thread,and if you have nothing constructive to say, start your own thread.... 

 

Anyone doing anything different/extra.

We supply each van with water, handwash and paper towels

Antibacterial cleaner and sanitiser for tools and vehicles

Limit vehicles to 2 persons and face covering/mask worn

Try to keep crews the same to minimise contact

Insist packed lunches and drinks are brought from home (no shop/coffee stops)

Recommend removing work clothes before entering home (especially if vulnerable members in household)

[Peasgood]

Lay them off

[petercb]

Excellent resource easily adapted for UK. I wear light gloves such as the site ones from screw fix about £1.39 a pair easy to work in.
Thanks for posting.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Decent link that ?? - easily adaptable and a good starting point for a documentary evidence trail for due diligence.

 

HSEs guidance is here:  

Working safely during the coronavirus outbreak - HSE news

WWW.HSE.GOV.UK

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This guidance is for employers and those who are self-employed and work with or near other people and explains...

 

with click through options for specific industry sectors (construction and outdoors is probably most relevant for arb although there is nothing specifically dedicated to arb.)

 

It's really difficult to try and lock down an accurate % chance of catching the virus in the workplace (exposing a worker to a known risk which can be mitigated) from any figures that seem to be available - they are starting to emerge from specific sectors like bus / taxi drivers, healthcare etc but that's hardly a metric that can be extrapolated to open air arb work.

 

Traditional risk assessment is a measure of the potential of an incident in relation to the severity of it. When that balance is too severe, or there are 'reasonably practicable' means of reducing the risk they should be initiated.  If you can't make an educated 'guess' as to the potential, how can you reasonably make an proper assessment of the risk?

 

I think, in time, we will come to recognise that a certain amount of over-reaction was evident in the early days with organisations, companies and individuals bending themselves all out of shape where as a more measured, agile and adaptable approach will be seen to have been the better option.    

 

This was the message from HSE from early April:  

 

 

 - Keep your business open. With the exception of some non-essential shops and public venues, businesses were not asked to close – indeed it is important for business to carry on

Edited May 13, 2020 by kevinjohnsonmbe

[Joe Newton]

4 hours ago, benedmonds said:

 

Please try not to derail the thread,and if you have nothing constructive to say, start your own thread.... 

You don't get to stipulate that im afraid. It's my right to post shit where I want!

[Mark J]

I'm staying at home when I can and working when necessary.
I'm in no hurry to squander the two months of 'lockdown'.
If you can work safely then crack on. Sharing vans should be a concern, as asymptomatic people shed the virus. The rest of tree work shouldn't be too much of a problem as it's out in the open air. Just make sure the groundy doesn't cough all over the 20 when refuelling.
There's some useful info here:

The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

WWW.ERINBROMAGE.COM

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Please read this link to learn about the author and background to these posts. It seems many people are breathing some...

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Mark J