What's New

Acas, the independent public body providing impartial advice to employers and employees, has published new guidance to help staff manage their mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have found that over half of a group of rice varieties sold in the UK contained levels of arsenic that were higher than allowed for babies and young children.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has reminded building occupiers, businesses and other duty holders restarting operations after the COVID-19 shutdown to review their water systems maintenance arrangements to avoid creating a public health hazard from waterborne bacteria such as legionella.

With the Government encouraging more people to return to work, assuming they are not among the group who can work from home, employers are having to think seriously about what measures they will need to ensure workplace safety.

Kindness is the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, currently taking place up to Sunday 24 May 2020, which aims to highlight the benefits of helping others to improve mental health and wellbeing and reduce stress during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says businesses should pass three tests before bringing their people back to work, in order to ensure employees feel safe in the workplace.

Setting out his action plan to tackle the spread of coronavirus, on 4 March, in the Commons, Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that emergency legislation would be introduced to ensure that workers will get statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day off work, not the fourth.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has warned that some manufacturers are selling medical face masks and other fake personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers using false certificates and that other A4-sized face shields, made in good faith by communities to help frontline workers, could be unsafe because they are too narrow.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has highlighted its action plan for healthy workplaces in the global coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced new advice on face coverings, suggesting the public should consider using them on public transport and in shops to help reduce the transmission of COVID-19.