September 2021: Protecting People at Work: The COVID-19 Safe Workplace Charter

Just over a year ago, on 27th August 2020, Independent SAGE, in conjunction with The Hazards
Campaign, published our ‘COVID-19 Safe Workplace Carter and Briefing Document’. We started by
stressing that “a safe return to the workplace is essential for the economy, the health of the
community and of the wider community. It must therefore be at the core of any effective strategy to
deal with COVID-19”. Such is the importance of ensuring that workplaces are organized in ways that
minimize the transmission of the virus, we argued, that it “cannot be taken for granted or left to the
discretion of individual enterprises. It must be guaranteed by robust principles, policies and
procedures”.

The Charter document is underpinned by two general principles that have been, and remain, central
to the approach of Independent SAGE. The first is that a successful pandemic response depends
upon robust measures to suppress infection. The second is that infection control should start with
measures that protect people and support them in being able to stay safe. Creating safe
environments that limit transmission and making it possible for people to isolate should they
become infected lies at the heart of this approach. It is the failure to implement such protective
measure that allows infection to run out of control and makes restrictive measures a necessity.

We believe that these measures remain highly relevant to the current context – if anything they are more important with infection rates high across the UK. We have re-released the detailed report with an updated introduction today. It should also be read in conjunction with our new Covid Safety Codes consultation document.

Read the full document here: