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Reopening your workplace? Bryan Cave identifies 12 things to know and do

Limit the number of people in waiting rooms or on elevators, with hand sanitizers available and adequate social distancing
Credit: SLBJ
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm.

ST. LOUIS — The safety and legal risks for businesses will be many when they reopen after the Covid-19 economic shutdown, experts at the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm warn.

Bryan Cave labor and employment lawyers outlined the pitfalls in a teleconference with clients:

  1. Consult OSHA guidelines that require hand washing signs, prohibit sharing of desks and phones and outline needed ventilation. Also required: the identification and isolation of potentially infectious employees, Sara O'Keefe, one of the Bryan Cave lawyers, said.
  2. Comply with the CDC’s Guidelines in effect at the time of a return to work. For example, employers should ensure they have sufficient hand washing stations and supplies, tissue disposal options and appropriate postings regarding sanitation and hygiene.
  3. Consult your state's executive orders on reopening — 22 states already have them and "they are all over the board," she said. Included in many are mandatory 30-minute breaks for hand washing.
  4. Limit the number of people in waiting rooms or on elevators, with hand sanitizers available and adequate social distancing.
  5. Remove magazines and other reading materials from waiting areas.
  6. Clean after each visitor.
  7. In potentially congested areas, such as around a time clock, consider marking the floors for distancing. "You may need to relax tardy requirements," Goldstein said.
  8. Break rooms and lunch rooms: "Some states will require they be closed, at least initially," O'Keefe said.

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