The health and safety challenges facing businesses are not as simple as they once were. This is demonstrated in disappointing fashion by the rise in attacks on Texas health care workers, reported by the Tribune, which must be considered as part of the new outlook in health and safety. An increasingly polarized community and the challenge of rolling pandemic waves are pairing with the nuances of home working; this, all in, is necessitating an entirely new approach to workplace health and safety – in Katy, and beyond.
Legal safeguards
Texas law is, of course, always going to tend towards personal responsibility. A Bloomberg Law report recently revealed that the state had challenged several COVID laws relating to large workplaces, with a federal response stating that their challenge had failed to show COVID controls showed harm. Typically, Texan and federal legal challenges are pursued through private means; injuries in the workplace will typically be pursued via a Katy or Houston injury attorney, as will defense by the company. Understanding this legal field in Texas helps to give clarity as to other measures being put in place, and what responsibilities an employer can expect to have in the modern health and safety system.
Changing threats
The fluidity of the legal system, and what employers can be litigated against for, means that it’s not always straightforward to engage with what is required. At a very minimum, it would seem that workplaces should provide adequate hygiene tools and plenty of ventilation; that will keep the office as safe as it can be without having to go too far in terms of new measures to combat the virus. As an aside, this can also help the office to steer clear of other illnesses, like the common cold, which could cause other problems.
Working from home
Remote working is another question again. Do employers need to be responsible for the comfort of their employees in their own home? Are they responsible for their mental wellbeing when isolated – potentially? Once again, it makes ethical sense to treat employees in a positive way. Putting adjustments into place to ensure that employees can be sat properly will help them to become more productive and put out more for you and your business. Conversely, it’s not the entire responsibility of a business to ensure the total mental wellbeing of their employees. Look to work with local restrictions and trends in health and safety, and go from there; if your employees are isolated, work closely with them, and if it’s a more relaxed phase of restrictions, go for a lighter touch.
The key is to be flexible. Health and safety is changing in ways never seen before, and that’s having an impact on how businesses are run. Rather than going for a one-size-fits-all approach, businesses will benefit the most by looking at the individual needs of their staff and sculpting their policy appropriately.