New health guidance adapted to the reopening

To support employers in the fight against the spread of the epidemic, “the national guidance for the protection of the health and safety of employees returning to business premises in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic” is regularly revised. Also, in view of the recent reopening of many businesses, this guidance has been revised again.

Thus, the guidance encourages employers to support employees, more particularly new and young workers, and to make them aware of the protection measures put in place in the company. And to help them in this process, the ANACT (National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions - Agence Nationale pour l’Amélioration des Conditions de Travail) has developed a guidance entitled “Covid-19 – Resumption of activity after closure of the company: how to support employees”. The objective is to help employees to master the professional gestures necessary for their safety, not practiced for several months because the stay-at-home order.

Ventilation and screening

The most important measure advised by the new guidance is to open windows/doors and to ventilate the workplaces. It is thus recommended to ventilate the premises by opening windows/doors or by a mechanical ventilation system. Ideally, doors and windows should remain open permanently or at least 5 minutes every hour. And, where possible, the places should be ventilated by two separate points (door and window, for example).

In addition, companies, which were already authorized to carry out Covid-19 screening campaigns via antigenic tests, can now make self-tests available to their employees, on voluntary basis, after receiving the necessary information from a health professional and without violating the confidentiality of their medical information. In the event of a positive result, the employee must isolate himself and perform an RT-PCR test to confirm this result.

Finally, employers are encouraged to inform their employees about how to access vaccination through the company’s occupational health service. For vaccination purposes, employees are allowed to be absent during their working time.

Moreover, the principle of 100% teleworking (with the possibility of returning one day a week to the company) for employees who can carry out all their missions remotely remains in place. This rule will be relaxed as of June 9, 2021.