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Updated: 20 August 2024
Under NSW work health and safety (WHS) laws, employers should take all reasonable and practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of workers. This includes the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the workplace.
The best way to protect your business is through good hygiene practices. At a minimum, businesses must adhere to existing requirements of food laws, including maintaining strict requirements around worker health and hygiene.
Food businesses are recommended to:
- have a COVID-19 Safety Plan that considers risk and control measures
- consider action to prevent workers from contracting and spreading the virus, and support for workers who may be exposed to a confirmed case or who show COVID-like symptoms. This can be included in your Safety Plan
- review and, if necessary, update risk assessment(s) to determine the level of risk of COVID-19 exposure in the workplace and ensure control measures are appropriate and effective.
Managing the risk of COVID-19
The best way to protect your business is through good hygiene practices. At a minimum, businesses must adhere to existing requirements of food laws, specifically:
- frequent hand washing when preparing foods, after going to the bathroom, and after touching the face or hair
- thorough cleaning and sanitising of facilities, equipment, and transport vehicles (including food contact surfaces and equipment, but also door handles, tap handles, glass touchscreens, light switches, and other 'high touch' areas
- cleaning surfaces with water and detergent and applying normally used cleaning agents is sufficient
- check if you're covering the Australian Government Guidelines for routine environmental cleaning on the Department of Health website. You should add anything to your standard procedures for cleaning and disinfection of your business premises if necessary
- maintaining strict requirements around worker health and hygiene. All staff should be trained in personal hygiene and how to wash their hands properly
- excluding any worker with a suspected communicable disease (such as coughing, sneezing, flu-like symptoms, gastrointestinal illness) from the workplace.
There are penalties under existing food legislation for businesses not complying with adequate cleaning and sanitising requirements.
If a worker tests positive
There are currently no rules in NSW which require self-isolation for those who test positive to COVID-19, however, under the Food Standards Code, any worker with a suspected communicable disease, including COVID-19, MUST be excluded from the workplace.
A worker who tests positive to COVID-19 is most infectious in the 2 days before symptoms appear and while they have obvious symptoms. A person may be infectious for up to 10 days.
NSW Health recommends workers who test positive:
- tell their workplace to help manage the risk to colleagues and customers
- stay home until their obvious symptoms (runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever) have gone
- talk to their employer about when they should return to work. In high-risk settings, such as food service to vulnerable persons, workers should stay home for 7 days and until they have no symptoms. This will help protect other staff, patients, residents and clients.
The privacy and confidentiality of the person who tested positive for COVID-19 must always be maintained.
If a worker is hospitalised or dies as a result of contracting COVID-19 at work, the business must notify SafeWork NSW.
Cleaning and sanitising
In the event of COVID-19 exposure, a more thorough and extensive cleaning and sanitising regime may be required.
For guidance see Cleaning and sanitising for food businesses in response to COVID-19 exposure (PDF, 771 KB).
More information
- Further information about food safety and COVID-19 is on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand website.
- Visit NSW Health - COVID-19