The start of the road back to normality?

The Prime Minister’s announcement last night and guidance published today is the first draft of a roadmap to restarting the economy. Returning to work will be phased depending on sectors and workplaces.

From Wednesday, people who cannot work from home, such as those in construction or manufacturing, should be “actively encouraged” to go to work but avoiding public transport. From June, non-essential retail will be opened where it is safe to do so, more local public transport will be open and there will be a phased return of early years settings and schools. The ambition is for remaining businesses such as hospitality and leisure facilities to start to reopen from July.

The government is also expected to publish this week seven ‘working safely’ guidance documents, covering different workplace environments:

1.  Working outdoors
2. Hotels, bars, and restaurants
3. Factory, plant, warehouse
4. In vehicles
5. In other people’s homes
6. In shops and branches
7. In offices and contact centres

Each of the documents includes guidance on who should go to work, social distancing and workforce management. It is expected that these guidance documents will be flexible and provide a template for employers on how to return safely rather than being a mandated approach. The REC hopes that this guidance will help companies understand what they can do to tackle this novel workplace risk. As part of this, the needs of all workers need to be considered, including temps.

A sudden and rapid increase in people returning to work, even within manufacturing and construction, is improbable. Employers will want to carefully consider the working safely guidance and engage with their employees before reopening their workplace.

There are other issues unrelated to health and safety to consider. For instance, in manufacturing, while there remains a lack of demand for many goods it’s hard to see many businesses returning immediately to full strength. While the public transport system matters less in rural areas, there is a growing concern about the ability to cope for England’s largest cities ability to cope if many workers started to rely on it.

An emerging issue is the differing guidance and communications in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The main problem here is the mixed messages leading to confusion. There are practical difficulties for companies that operate across the UK and for employees who live in one country but work in another.

A gradual return to work over several months will involve employers making hard decisions on reopening. So how quickly we return will depend on the confidence of employers and employees that it can be done safely. Government assurances and assistance to business will be vital if this process is to succeed in maintaining the balance between our health and the economy.

Join the REC’s Blue Collar webinar on Wednesday 13 May at 12pm, which will explore the PM’s announcement in more detail. There will be a particular focus on the outlook for specialist recruiters in:

• Construction (and related engineering roles)
• Manufacturing
• Driving and logistics
• Industrial
• Hospitality
• Retail