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Help, we've got swine flu! Advice please.

Last post 06-07-2009 12:27 PM by MartinCouzins. 3 replies.
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  • 03-07-2009 10:58 AM

    • Bonsai
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    Help, we've got swine flu! Advice please.

    I'm an HR practitioner in a Birmingham-based company, and one of our employees has just called in sick with suspected swine flu. The West Midlands area has been particularly badly affected with swine flu, so I was wondering if HR professionals in other businesses in the area who have already had cases of swine flu could offer me some advice? The Department of Health hasn't been very helpful with giving specific practical advice, so I would really appreciate hearing about how you handled it in your firm. Should we encourage people to work from home for a while to avoid spreading it, or is it best to carry on as usual? Our employees are understandably quite worried about it all, which is affecting performance, but I'm really tearing my hair out trying to decide what to do.

     Thanks in advance!

     



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  • 03-07-2009 1:26 PM In reply to

    • HazelC
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    Re: Help, we've got swine flu! Advice please.

     As far as I understand it so far, it is ultimately just flu.  I would be inclined to say, business as usual.  You would need business continuity procedures (you all should have them in the event of fire or any disaster) to be up-to-date incase larger numbers of staff were hit but other than that, there isn't much that can be done.  If staff are showing flu symptoms then it may be wise to encourage people to work from home but the problem with cold and flus is that normally by the time you realise it's definitely flu and not a bad(ish) cold, you've already passed the virus on.

    The government is no longer trying to contain the virus either.

    It's important to ensure that staff are reassured - it would be wise not to panic them

     

     



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  • 03-07-2009 3:49 PM In reply to

    • Treacle
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    Re: Help, we've got swine flu! Advice please.

    I think you have a duty of care to your other employees. The approach to similar cases my organisation has taken in London is, to insist that individauls are quarantined from the office. It is most likely that this will be for a period of 10 days (working days). For those staff who are off due to Children's schools being shut unless their children have been confirmed as having Swine flu we ask staff to come in to the office all the time they feel well.

    If individuals can work from home we say this is OK all the time they feel well enough to but if they are sick then they need to rest just like any other member of staff absent from the office.



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  • 06-07-2009 12:27 PM In reply to

    Re: Help, we've got swine flu! Advice please.

     Hi

    This Personnel Today article should be useful:http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/05/01/50513/swine-flu-10-things-hr-professionals-and-employers-need-to-do-now.html

    Not sure if you are a subscriber to XpertHR, but there is also a lot of practical information available (www.xperthr.co.uk). 

    Good luck with it . . . Martin




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