• Peter Bateman
    270
    A year or two ago Covid was the number one focus for many H&S practitioners. With Covid now running rampant in the community I’m interested to know if that is still the case.
    What proportion of your time is devoted to Covid-related matters these days?
  • Amber van Polanen
    18
    I still find a reasonable amount of my time is taken up by COVID. My role is as H&S Coordinator for a transport & distribution company. My responsibilities when it comes to COVID-19 are to remain up to date with the latest government advice in order to advise our management team & staff. To give advice on the measures we should be taking, based on the outbreak, such as work from home efforts etc.. This is very difficult in itself as the advice from the government seems to be constantly changing. I also deal with the testing of staff onsite, communications with staff who have tested positive or are unwell & making sure they are supported, helping them report their results if required. I also need to remain up to date with our customers and contractors requirements such as drivers testing prior to deliveries, PPE rules, vaccination requirements and so forth.
  • Garth Forsberg
    34
    Between supporting people that are isolating (ensuring that they can work from home and offering to provide supplies and mental health support if they need it), contact tracing for people that were in the office while contagious (very few transmissions at work so far), providing masks and other PPE for field staff, keeping our protocol document up to date as per latest government release, tracking which clients still require vaccine passes, administering RATs as required (interoffice travel only at the moment), facilitating applications for the leave support scheme, and answering the constant stream of questions related to the above, I seem to be spending 10% to 20% of my time devoted to Covid related matters. We have had between 5% and 10% of staff isolating at any one time since February and I think that would have been higher without the effort put in. It's a busy time to be in H&S
  • Te Roopu Marutau
    9
    It is still a thing... We still need contingency should the government change direction and business continuity issues are higher. Personally we have high staff attrition (no shortage, just a staff shuffling) and responsible absenteeism through sickness, but the most concerning for me is that the priority of "work" has stepped down a peg or two.
    I prioritised Workplace culture as our HS focus over the past 4 months to awhi (assist) our staff, the boss in on board with feel good funds and commitment to improve which is great.
    Wayne
  • robyn moses
    62
    It is still very much a thing occupying 50% of my time as sole HS Officer for an essential service with 200 workers all of whom have been able to continue to come into work as household contacts and with 85% having had to isolate for 7 days as positive cases and currently running with 15% having to re-isolate due to reinfection. Managing Covid has distracted from more general health and safety. There is an uptick in injuries and accidents due to increased workload on existing staff (longer hours, 6 days working week, workers being asked to carry 2x normal workload) labour shortages, isolation and now the flu season causing high staff absenteeism alongside increased production demands to meet food supply chain. Many of our workers who have continued to work through the past 3 years are suffering from covid fatigue with blurring of boundaries between work/home while dealing with schooling, illness, loss, rising economic costs and loss of income in households where household contacts do not work in critical services. Try, trying to find replacement AED pads in the country at the moment. Routine or preventative equipment maintenance is dire with parts not being able to be accessed or service people unavailable to fix, equipment malfunction not only increases the dangers for staff if something untoward occurs but it also increases manual loading if the machine is out of service. Then there is the use of inferior PPE until stocks arrive in the country. Staff waiting 10 hrs in A&E to met medical treatment for workplace injury and necessary paper work for ACC. Sorry for the rant, hygiene, social distancing and protocols for contagious diseases were all part and parcel of our everyday buisness
  • Yonny Yeung
    11
    The fatigue of the C word has made my job harder, not easier. Although spending less time researching about Covid every day, everyone thinks we should move on and just embrace it.
    Every time it is brought up, no one wants to listen to it.
    Mask wearing has diminished. People keep referencing what other countries are doing. They want to be pre-Covid normal. Yet this is much more rampant than we ever had before.
    Two years ago, I was probably spending 90% of my time daily on Covid. There were new policies, travel advisory, dealing with suppliers, clients on their policies. Today, it is down to 5%.
  • TracyRichardson
    48
    It is still a thing. We do daily updates, temperature monitoring and provide RAT tests. With the flu we just take it in our stride
  • Andrew
    387
    It is still taking up far too much of my time. It is patently obvious this thing is in the community, its going to be in the community for a long time and for most it is nothing more than a mild flu. Time to move on. Stop with the daily reporting of iffy case and death numbers. If you feel unwell stay at home. If you are fine come to work and do a decent days work. Time to put an end to "I am again a household contact So I'l have another week off work and collect my govt subsidy"
  • Rima Urangia
    5
    Yes, still part of the work day.
    Not as much as the first quarter of this year, when Delta then Omicron were at their peak and rules were changing very quickly.
    I still dedicate time to it due to the impacts it can have on the business continuity.
    Covered by the "Health" part of "Health and Safety".
  • Jason Fawcett
    5
    With winter well upon us and infections on the rise, it's now more a case of providing RAT kits for workers with symptoms and then managing their absence. Currently we've got equal numbers of Covid vs seasonal influenza employees away - with mask wearing and vaccination / boosters now only "encouraged", it's no surprise to see cases increasing of course despite the subsequent health system / supply chain impacts being widely communciated - not that it's stopping some complaining - can't have it both ways.
  • Andrew
    387
    Just looking at some numbers. I'm running at about 1.5% of workforce away due to covid. Less if I take into account the Work-from-homers.
  • Don Ramsay
    147
    It's still a thing but not taking as much time as before, probably about 3% of my time now compared to 90% at the height of the pandemic. It's great to be able to focus my efforts back on the other aspects of the role.
  • Trudy Downes
    89
    As everyone says it is still a thing, I had found it to be a big thing every time there was a govt led change. Once people get used to the new settings things calm down to a 'new' business as usual which means I have less Covid work now because there have been very little Govt led changes.
    We are going to ramp up Covid comms shortly to address 'living with the pandemic now' (or something like that). So I will have a small increase in Covid work again.
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