Your
employer rights and choices with bad employees
Employee hygiene is important to any business, but to those
that serve or prepare food and to those that work with people
it is crucial. If you own a business with strict OSHA laws on
employee hygiene, it is imperative that you enforce them with
your employees. If you do not follow these laws, you will be
liable. And you risk having your business shut down for good
or dealing with the guilt (and perhaps legal effects) of making
your customers ill.
What Rights Do I have On Employee Hygiene?
As an employer, you have the right to demand that your employees
keep themselves as hygienic as possible. If you work in the food
industry, this means your employees must wash their hands every
time after using the rest room. You must encourage them to wash
their hands often throughout the day. A part of your employee
hygiene protocol may also include wearing hairnets or gloves
while preparing food.
If your business involves working with other people, like in
nursing, you also have the right and duty to demand that your
employees wear clean clothing and that they wash their hands
frequently. Your employee hygiene policy should include washing
their hands after working with each patient, particularly if
the nurse helps the patient use the rest room, changes any dressings
or gets equipment out for the patient. Failure for nurses to
follow employee hygiene procedures can spread illness among patients.
For those with a compromised immune system, the added germs can
be deadly.
Even if you don’t own a business that involves working
with food or with patients, you still have the right to demand
a certain level of hygiene from your employees. As an employer,
you can demand that your employees remain presentable always,
are free of body odor, and are clean.
How Do I Enforce My Employee Hygiene Policy?
You should present your employee hygiene policy in writing to
each of your newly hired workers. This policy should clearly
explain expectations of employee hygiene. For example, you might
include when the employees must wash their hands, when they should
wear gloves, when they should wear a hairnet, and what clothing
is and is not acceptable to wear. You might also wish to ban
the use of cologne since the scent can be irritating to certain
customers and patients.
Besides describing expectations, the employee hygiene policy
should also detail the repercussions of ignoring these rules.
You can be precise, such as list an exact number of days a person
might be suspended for breaking the rules. Or, you can be more
vague, by providing a range of possible repercussions. Be sure
to take some time when creating the employee hygiene policy because
it will be your guideline when it comes to disciplining employees
that choose to ignore it.
Once you have created an employee hygiene policy, present this
information to your employees. In addition, they should sign
a paper documenting that they have received a copy of it. Then,
when an issue does arise, consult this policy to decide the action
you will take in response to your employee’s lack of proper
hygiene.
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