Employers’ obligations should be no different to their usual obligations when it comes to ensuring the health, welfare and safety of employees. Employers should maintain a duty of care and take reasonable steps to ensure that their employees are not exposed to the risk of contamination from swine flu or other workplace risks.

The Department of Health and Ageing advises that the most important thing businesses can do to prepare for a pandemic is to have a business continuity plan in place. The Business Continuity Guide for Australian Business provides useful tools and information for employers to prepare for and manage the impact of a human influenza pandemic, and it can be accessed here.

The Guide outlines a range of measures that employers may need to consider as part of their business continuity plan, to help protect staff from illness, including:
a. Emphasising the need for staff to practice good personal hygiene (e.g. regular and thorough hand washing, which the Guide advocates as the most important thing that an individual can do to prevent illness);
b. Increasing the workplace cleaning regime;
c. Social distancing – minimising employees’ contact with others;
d. Restricting staff travel and/or managing their return from overseas travel; and
e. Ensuring policies are in place and procedures are followed for managing staff that develop influenza symptoms or become ill at work.

Employers should also appoint a person within the organisation to monitor the influenza situation and stay abreast of the particular risk factors in the locations in which the company operates.

The Australian Government has also developed a publication Being Prepared for an Influenza Pandemic – A Kit for Small Business, which is useful for small business in developing a business continuity plan and includes ten simple steps to achieve this. See: PandemicBusiness Continuity KitSmall Businesses

While employers should take all necessary steps to manage the risks associated with Human Swine Influenza it is important to do so in a way that is proportionate to the risk and does not create undue alarm.

Employees with the flu or are known to have come in contact with someone who has it, should be put on sick leave. If an employee is a health and safety risk but chooses not to take sick leave, or their sick leave has run out, they must make alternative leave arrangements with their employer (whether that is annual leave, leave without pay or other arrangements).

Employers can obtain more information on this topic by calling the Swine Influenza Hotline on 180 2007 or via www.health.vic.gov.au