COVID-19 Workplace Public Health Order Compliance

• Employers are responsible for the health and safety of their workers, and all other workers at their workplace. They are responsible for completing and posting the COVID-19 Safety Plan and to train and educate everyone at the workplace of the contents of that plan. Employers are also responsible for having a system in place to identify the hazards of COVID-19, control the risk, and monitor the effectiveness of the controls.
• Workers are responsible for taking reasonable care to protect their own health and safety and the health and safety of other people at workplace. In the context of COVID-19, this means workers are responsible for their own personal self-care, which includes frequent hand washing and staying home when sick. Workers are also responsible for reporting unsafe conditions to their employer, and following the procedures put in place by the employer to control the risks associated with COVID-19.
• The owner or the prime contractor is responsible for coordinating health and safety at a workplace where workers of two or more employers are working at the same time. This includes doing everything that can reasonably be done to establish and maintain a system or process to ensure compliance with WorkSafeBC laws and regulations generally, including ensuring an effective system to control the risks associated with COVID-19. In order to ensure that the risk of transmission of COVID-19 at a multiple-employer workplace is minimized, the prime contractor is expected to review and assess the COVID-19 safety plans of each employer at the workplace, and to develop and implement an overall plan to coordinate workplace safety and ensure compliance. A prime contractor who is an employer must also develop their own COVID-19 safety plan.
• Contractors might be a worker, employer or independent operator, depending on the contract between you, and how that person has set up their business.

• Workplace Safety Plans – May 14, 2020 (PDF, 188KB)
• Workplace Safety – December 16, 2020 (PDF, 314KB)
• Delegation: Workplace Closures – April 11, 2021 (PDF, 319KB)
• Public Heath guidelines
• Industrial Projects Restart – January 12, 2021 (PDF, 313KB)
• Workplace Safety – December 16, 2020 (PDF, 314KB)
• Industrial Camps – July 2, 2020 (PDF, 311KB)
• Delegation: Industrial Camps – June 9, 2020 (PDF, 216KB)
• Travellers and Employers – April 14, 2020 (PDF, 365KB)
• Delegation: Travellers – April 14, 2020 (PDF, 255KB)
• Federal Quarantine Order – August 30, 2020 (PDF, 428KB)
• Government of Canada, Exceptions to Requirement to Quarantine, section 6

• We have identified where people congregate, in the context of our own business locations and do same for any client locations where we deploy.
• In our assessment we have identified job tasks or processes which require our workers to come into close proximity with one another or members of the public?
• We have identified tools, machinery, and equipment that our workers come into contact with in the course of their work.
• We have identified surfaces that are touched often, such as doorknobs, elevator buttons, light switches, equipment, and shared tools and technology.

• For essential field operations we ensure that the appropriate number of people are in each area of a workplace to prevent workers from coming too close to one another or members of the public. We have posted occupancy limits at each client work site and company sites.
• We maintain a distance of 2 metres (6 feet) between workers and others wherever possible, by revising work schedules, organizing work tasks, and employing the use of dollies or other aids for work tasks that would typically be done by more than one person.
• Notwithstanding that we need to be flexible in transferring resources from client site to site to manage capacity, we do endeavour to create pods of workers who work together to minimize the risk of broad transmission throughout the workplace. Our business is in servicing multiple clients, new clients, at multiple sites on an as contracted or needed basis, hence the need for flexibility in scheduling resources suitably qualified for task and that we cannot meet exclusivity in pods.
• We have implemented measures to ensure workers can maintain a distance of two metres when serving or working with or near members of the public.
• Where physical distance cannot be maintained, and in consideration of the nature of our business we require the use of masks, alongside other transmission reduction actions, such as disinfecting surfaces and routine hand sanitizing.

We have implemented cleaning protocols for all common areas and surfaces, including washrooms, equipment, tools, common tables, desks, light switches, and door handles. We have also ensured those engaged in cleaning have adequate training and materials.

We have removed unnecessary tools or equipment that may elevate the risk of transmission, including items like coffee makers and shared utensils and plates.

Lions Gate prohibits access to:

• Anyone who has had symptoms of COVID-19
• Anyone who has travelled outside of Canada within the last 14 days
• Anyone who has been identified by Public Health as a close contact of someone with COVID-19
• Anyone who has been told to isolate by Public Health
• Visitors at unoccupied company premises.

Lions Gate has a documented plan around workers who may start to feel ill while at work, including who they should notify and how they will travel from the workplace to their home.

We have procedures for workers working alone to reduce the risk of transmission. This relates primarily to workers operating from remote locations and primarily from home, to ensure they are safe.

Lions Gate has developed, published, and communicated, work from home procedures to ensure workers are working safely.

WORKING FROM HOME

SETTING UP HOME WORKSPACE

• We have delivered online training and circulate bulletins for all staff on the measures we have put in place, our COVID-19 Safety Plan, and the policies around staying home when sick.
• We post signage, including occupancy limits and effective handwashing practices at company locations and where required at client field locations and sites. For company workplaces we have placed signage at the main entrance indicating who is restricted from entering the premises (including visitors and workers with symptoms).
• We ensure supervisors have been trained on monitoring workers and workplace to ensure policies and procedures are being followed.

• We monitor continually to pro-actively identify areas of concern and require in routine reports from site operatives, that they document any new area of concern, or if it seems like something isn’t working.
• Guided by operative reports and the results of our pro-active steps we update your policies and procedures accordingly as appropriate.
• We do ensure that workers have options to communicate safety concerns. Through supervisors, reports, and through our employee health and safety representative or through our joint health and safety committee.
• Lions Gate Management works with our joint health and safety committee to resolve any identified safety issues.

• We have some staff turnover, and we do have workers being required to change or adapt job roles, or to use new equipment. For this reason, we include training for both on-boarding orientation and relocation, repositioning. We pro-actively canvass staff who have been absent from duties to establish whether they require a refresh their skills, and in the affirmative, provide situation specific support.
• We have changed the way we operate, reducing the requirement for face-to-face contact and site visits where feasible without compromising service delivery. In support of this we now employ a raft of different approaches, using available technology to facilitate this.
• Lions Gate does not produce products aside from reports which are now provided to clients in electronic format to reduce transmission, again where feasible.

Prolonged Close Contact with an Infected Person – The primary route of COVID-19 transmission is prolonged (more than 15 minutes) close contact with a symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, or asymptomatic infected person.

Self-Isolation – The first risk reduction principle is isolation of symptomatic individuals until their COVID-19 status can be evaluated. However, this approach cannot reduce risk of transmission from pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

Social Interactions – Travel – The second risk reduction principle is to limit close contact between all individuals by maintaining small and consistent social circles. When social circles are smaller and more consistent, there will be less transmission of the virus if someone in the circle is unknowingly infected.

Contaminated Hands – Hands can easily become contaminated with the virus that causes COVID-19 if they come directly into contact with the respiratory droplets of an infected person, or they come into contact with a contaminated surface. Infection with COVID-19 can then occur when people touch their face without washing their hands.

The third risk reduction principle is to practice frequent hand cleaning by washing with soap and water or using hand sanitizer. Surfaces can be contaminated by the virus that causes COVID-19 when respiratory droplets fall onto them directly, or when they are touched when with contaminated objects or hands.

Cleaning and Disinfecting – The fourth risk reduction principle is to regularly clean and disinfect potentially contaminated surfaces. Together, these two principles reduce risk of indirect COVID-19 transmission.

Crowding – Most of the respiratory droplets that cause COVID-19 infection travel less than 2 meters before settling out of the air. When many people are crowded together, they are highly exposed to the respiratory droplets of all the people nearby, which can lead to high risk of COVID-19 transmission if any of those people are infected.

The fifth risk reduction principle is to minimize crowding by creating physical space between individuals whenever possible. This is particularly important for individuals who are not within the same social circle. However, there are some situations in which it is difficult to maintain physical space, such as when taking public transit or receiving personal services.

Masks – The sixth risk reduction principle is to interrupt the spread of respiratory droplets in situations where adequate physical distance cannot be maintained. The best methods for interrupting the spread of droplets are physical barriers and facial coverings.

MASKS ARE MANDATORY

Very High-Risk Situations – Even when the principles outlined above are considered, there are situations that can lead to high risk of COVID-19 transmission. First, some people are very susceptible to infection with COVID-19 due to their age or health status, and they need special consideration.

The seventh risk reduction principle is to ensure rigorous protections for highly susceptible persons or populations. Second, there is evidence that COVID-19 spreads easily in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation.

Although COVID-19 is not an airborne disease such as measles or tuberculosis, inadequate ventilation may cause buildup of exhaled breath that can lead to transmission throughout the enclosed space.

COVER COUGHS AND SNEEZES

The eighth risk reduction principle is to prioritize fresh air. This advice is easy to follow during the warm summer months, but is even more important in colder weather.

To support this goal, the provincial health officer issued an order on December 16, 2021 that includes a requirement for employers in all regions to ensure that every worker conducts a daily health check before entering the workplace.

What employers need to do

• Employers must ensure that every worker performs a daily health check before entering the workplace. Health checks are mandatory self-assessments conducted by workers and includes confirming with their employer, in written or verbal format, that they have reviewed the complete list of entry requirements and that none of the prohibited criteria apply to them.
• Employers can use a number of methods to confirm that this self-assessment has taken place. Some examples include:
  • A written health check declaration completed by workers before entry.
  • An online health check form completed by workers before entry.
  • A verbal check in, done either in person, virtually, or by phone with every worker, confirming that the worker has completed their daily health check.
  • Other forms of a supervised daily health check process based on the above.

What workers need to do

• Review the list of symptoms and potential exposure questions
• Complete the daily health check and inform your employer that you have done so, using the health check method at your workplace.
• If you have any of the symptoms or potential exposures listed on the health check, do not enter the workplace.

What are the key symptoms of COVID-19?
The current list of symptoms as identified by the BCCDC are included on the two entry check posters:

What are the other entry requirements?
In addition to displaying any of the above new or worsening symptoms, other restrictions from entering a workplace include:

• If you have travelled outside of Canada within the last 14 days
• If you have been identified by Public Health as a close contact of someone with COVID-19
• If you have been told to isolate by Public Health

Who is responsible for doing health checks?
Lions Gate is responsible for ensuring that health checks are completed by implementing appropriate protocols and training designated individuals to confirm they are done. Supervisors, health and safety personnel, or others may be tasked with confirming that workers have conducted the health check. Workers are responsible for conducting the health check before entering the workplace and confirming this through the method required by the employer.

What if a worker does not pass the health check?
The worker must not enter the workplace. They must return home and use the BC COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool or follow any public health advice they have been given.

Are employers required to inform public health of those exhibiting symptoms?
No.

What if a worker refuses to confirm that a health check was completed?
The order issued by the PHO requires that workers do the health check. If a worker refuses to take part in the health check, they must not enter the workplace.

Do daily health checks have to be completed for trades people, contractors, or visiting staff?
Yes.

What information is the employer required to collect?
Lions Gate just needs to confirm that a health check was done.

Do daily health checks have to be completed for clients or the general public entering the workplace?
No, the provincial health officer has only ordered daily health checks for all workers entering the workplace. However, a COVID-19 Safety Plan already requires that employers have policies prohibiting members of the public from entering the workplace if they are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms or meet any of the other restricted criteria. For members of the public, posting signage at the entrance to the workplace is enough.

If we implement an effective health check program, doesn’t that mean no one with COVID-19 is at the workplace? Can we relax on our other protocols?
No. Remember, not all COVID-19-positive people show symptoms, and asymptomatic people can still transmit the virus. All of your workplace protocols including physical distancing, barriers, masks, and cleaning protocols need to remain in place, and you must ensure that they are being followed appropriately.