Jun 30th, 2020
3 mins
Keeping workers and customers safe during COVID-19 in restaurants, pubs, bars, and takeaway services
Updated 30/06/2020 – Now includes social distancing marshals
Government released guidance yesterday for keeping workers and customers safe in pubs, restaurants, bars and takeaways services during COVID-19 in England, this with an aim of easing lockdown and helping to restore the economy. The guidance is structured in the same way as the other government safe working guidance such as factories, plants and warehouses, shops and branches and office working. While the guidance on social distancing advises on 2 metres this also includes 1 metre distancing with risk mitigation in place where 2 metres is not viable.
Further mitigating actions include:
- Further increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning.
- Keeping the activity time involved as short as possible.
- The use of social distancing marshals to constantly monitor distancing between individuals
- Using screens or barriers to separate workers from each other and workers from customers at points of service.
- Using back-to-back or side-to-side working (rather than face-to-face) whenever possible.
- Reducing the number of people each person has contact with by using ‘fixed teams or partnering’ (so each person works with only a few others).
- Finally, if people must work face-to-face for a sustained period with more than a small group of fixed partners, then you will need to assess whether the activity can safely go ahead. No one is obliged to work in an unsafe work environment.
For the full guidance please see below:
