The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW) demand that as the COVID-19 pandemic increases and as the nation goes into Level 4 of the lockdown, the government to ensure more screening and personal protective equipment (PPE) for all the workers is done, including the necessary preventative and protective measures are put in place to fight COVID-19 once the offices reopen. We call on the government and other employers to respect the Occupational Health and Safety of the workers.

 

For preventing the spread of infection to and from the workers will depend on the effective use of personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks and handwashing stations; employers should also provide accommodation and transport to reduce risks of infection for the workers and updated information on the risks at the workplace.

 

NUPSAW calls on the Department of Employment and Labour to intervene to ensure that all the departments comply to protect workers across. World Health Organisation (WHO) should work with the government to ensure that they can fight this pandemic, those who fail to comply should be held accountable for the violation of lockdown regulations.

 

NUPSAW has key demands to keep the departments from collapse:

 

  • Recognise that COVID-19 is an occupational disease and provide training on the disease
  • Employers should involve workers in risk assessment and appropriate measures on COVID -19 at workplace
  • No loss of income if workers should work fewer hours to minimize risk infections
  • Daily health screening for all and COVID-19 testing for any unwell workers
  • Paid time off if a worker must be quarantine or has COVID-19
  • Physical distancing maintained in shared work areas and facilities which are kept sanitized
  • Workers representatives can stop work if health and safety measures are not followed.

 

NUPSAW encourages that the government secure personal protective equipment (PPE) and ensure to distribute them to all government departments with urgent attention at the moment, where such is not available then our members should not go to work.