COVID-19 Lockdown: Regulations for personal care services Gazetted

… navigating through the COVID-19 LOCKDOWN scandal …

PERSONAL CARE SERVICES

REGULATIONS GAZETTED

Dear employer

On Friday, 19 June 2020, the Department of Small Business Development published the regulations which employers in the Personal Care Sector must adhere to in order to operate under Alert Level 3.

These regulations do not replace the obligations placed on all employers in terms of the regulations issued by the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) but enhances them.

Employers in the Personal Care Sector must therefore adhere to both sets of regulations.

Due to the nature of the Sector it is however expected that most employers will employ less than 10 employees. Therefore, the only additional DEL requirements would be to do a risk assessment, which will in essence be complied with if all the sector specific measures have been implemented, and to develop a basic workplace plan. Incorporation of the sector specific workplace measures into the plan should suffice.

Employers in the Sector would also be required to comply with guidelines by the Department of Health, in the event of a Covid-19 infection or suspected Covid-19 infection in the workplace. In the instance of employers with less than 10 employees, the regulations only determine that the employer may not allow an employee who displays Covid-19 symptoms to come to work and must contact the Covid-19 Hotline on 0800 02 9999 and instruct employees to act in accordance with the communicated instructions.

Employers in the sector with 10 or more employees will be required to comply with all the relevant DEL and Department of Health regulations and guidelines.

NEASA has prepared a generic TOOLKIT which employers may use as a basis for compliance. Employers in the Personal Care Services Sector will need to enhance this toolkit, as required, in order to comply with the specific regulations for the Sector.

The additional regulations, in the main, deal with issues pertaining to sanitisation, social distancing, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and booking of appointments and are, to a large extent, self-explanatory.

The regulations are applicable with immediate effect and any personal care service business may open with immediate effect providing that all measures in terms of all the regulations have been complied with.

Please click here to view the regulations.

Members are advised to contact their NEASA regional office in this regard.

NEASA 24/7 NATIONAL HOTLINE: 086 016 3272
legalhotline@neasa.co.za
(please have your membership number at hand)

For more information:
NEASA Media Department
Marietha Thirion
marietha@neasa.co.za

We are all in this together.
Privileged and challenged to be South African.