Elise Archer,Minister for Building and Construction
The Tasmanian Government is committed to helping the State recover and rebuild from COVID-19, while ensuring the health and safety of Tasmanian communities.
This has been a very difficult time for many Tasmanian businesses and their employees, and the State’s economic and social recovery depends of workplaces being vibrant and active contributors in the community.
With large numbers of workers and/or customers in many Tasmanian workplaces, the risk of COVID-19 spreading, should there be an outbreak, increases.
It’s important to understand that COVID-19 is a workplace hazard and, as such, businesses need to manage it in the same way they manage any other hazard as part of their work health and safety responsibilities.
The Director of Public Health has now issued a new Public Health Direction to manage the threat to public health posed by the spread of COVID 19 in workplaces.
The Direction sets out the minimum standards that businesses need to meet to manage the risk of COVID19 spreading and protect both workers and customers.
Businesses must implement measures to achieve the minimum standards and must also document these measures.
The Government has worked with stakeholders to develop industry specific guidelines to provide examples of the sorts of measures to suit businesses in each sector.
A COVID Safety Plan is a great way for businesses to document measures and show how they are keeping their customers, their workers and the community safe.
WorkSafe Tasmania has also developed templates to help small and medium businesses to prepare their COVID Safety Plans.
WorkSafe Tasmania inspectors are visiting businesses to ensure that workplaces are actively applying COVID-19 controls, and importantly, assisting them on how to implement the required measures.
Inspectors are taking a supportive and educative approach to compliance, particularly where genuine attempts are being made by businesses to comply with the new way of working.
