Good afternoon,

Should the employer supply face coverings to employees who choose to use public transport to and from work. It has sparked quite a debate among those i have asked!

The YES camp argue that the employer has a duty to supply PPE free of charge under the HSWA and have created the need for the person to work outside of their home.

The NO camp argue that the employer is only responsible once the person is at work and if the employee chooses to use public transport, that is outside of work. Also wearing face coverings on public transport is not H&S law, it is public health legislation.

The employer are saying that if they supply one person, they need to supply everyone and they are struggling to get supplies. The government advice is that people can make their own.

Thank you in advance

RJM

Here we go start of the "its someone elses fault" mentality.

None of the UK governments has mandated the wearing of true PPE on public transport OR in any other public arena - they very specifically state "face covering" even going so far as to request the public avoid the use of medical grade masks. Ergo there is NO DUTY on an employer to provide anything to its employees to travel on public transport as it is not PPE that is required.

They are as stated outside of work and beyond the employers control.

If an employer does decide to be super generous what type of covering should be provided?

It was only the other week CEN provided free guidance on Public Protection face covering requirements and test methods - you can bet the products currently available on-line or through the dispensing machines appearing around the country do not meet this document.

There are plenty of bogus CE/KN95 products doing the rounds (not only on-line) to exploit this legislation why should an employer take on the obligation to verify an unecessary (for employment purposes) item?

As to the comment "creating the need to work away from home" - B.S. - these people were employed at the location necessitating public transport BEFORE Covid-19, it is unfortunate the employer cannot accomodate their working from home but if it is a construction site, £0.5M CNC cutter, toilet paper making machine it is unlikely an employer could move such expensive kit to the individuals benefit.

Edited by user 06 July 2020 18:23:40(UTC)  | Reason: what did you do before the "outbreak" daddy?

There is an expectation for the employer to consider the commute in these Covid times and in Scotland this must be part of the risk assessment. Therefore we should support colleagues. We have decided to havea a supply in reception so if our employee loses or damages their face covering while in the office they can take one and get home. We did not want anyone to be stranded because they had no face covering because of damage etc and couldnt use public transport home (our main office is in central London)

Where does this “expectation” come from? If you are an employer, your first responsibility is to follow the law. The law should be written in clear way and if there is any ambiguity the courts will inerter the law. Early on during the lockdown, there was an “expectation” from some police forces  that shops that were allowed to open because  they were “essential”  eg food shops should only be selling “essential” goods eg food but not “non-essentials” such as socks. In those areas the police and trading standards officers were stopping from buying those items. See https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-police-chief-issues-lockdown-21838760

They were eventually warned off that their job was to enforce the law as it was written, not to pander to “expectations”

Nowhere does the law say that employers have a duty to supply face coverings for people who travel to work. The government guidance actually says that it is preferable that people avoid public transport and only travel of public transport if there is no other viable option. Nowhere does it say that the employer must provide an alternative. If we were going to go down the employers duty of care/risk assessment   route then the first thing they should be looking at is providing a taxi service between the employees home and work, rather than relying on public transport.

The government regulations requiring that face masks are worn on public transport, do not specify the nature and type of face covering. There is nothing like a technical specification. The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings on Public Transport) (England) Regulations 2020 simply say that “face covering” means a covering of any type which covers a person’s nose and mouth; “. The regs are made not under Health and Safety at Work Act but under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984.

If we are looking at “expectations” the courts would ask what the stated purpose of these rules is, and that is to prevent the spread of the Covid 19 virus and so prevent collapse of the health care system- it’s a public health issue not a Health and Safety issue. The face coverings are intended to stop the wearing infecting other people, not to protect the wearing, which is what PPE is for. I was told this by, a Senior HSE Executive that they regard face coverings as distinct from RPE (face masks) during a webinar.

There has been a certain amount of “mission creep” since the loosening of the lockdown and some people are interpreting the aim of the anti Covid measures in H&S terms rather than Public health terms. That is where these “expectations” are coming from.

The only situation I can think where the employer might want to provide a face covering would be if the person were having to travel between sites during the the working day as part of their role and normally used public transport to do so as that would be during their standard working day and work related. 

In this case though I'd probably recommend a taxi between locations but that might not be available / be cost prohibitive depending on distance / location so if that's the case, then providing a face covering wouldn't be a massive issue.

For normal commute to and from work, then no - that's their responsibility.