Over the next few weeks, I thought we might look at some tips regarding COVID-19 operations for some of the small businesses you might advise and consult within your ProAdvisor practice. These tips regard primarily risk reduction for those businesses that are continuing to operate, or which may be starting to reopen under the new guidelines.
In thinking about the types of businesses I should write about the first one that came to mind was Maintenance/Janitorial/Maid Services. I think it was out of the reality that a friend of mine had been working all along during the crisis because she worked for a ‘maid service’. A few weeks back she was telling me how her job had changed so much as a result of COVID-19.
At first her job slowed down as some businesses where they had worked ‘called their cleaning crews off’, but then those businesses realized that they needed to keep their facilities ‘ready for a return’ if conditions changed. In other cases, some businesses still had a limited number of employees coming into work, so they needed to now be sanitized more often than they had previously been cleaned. In other cases, businesses that had never used the service before would call asking if they could provide ‘sanitizing or disinfecting’ services since an employee had “gone home sick and might have COVID-19”?
Suddenly these small janitorial/maintenance/maid businesses have gone from being ‘the cleaning guys/gals’ to now being the teams responsible for sanitizing and deep cleaning of other businesses infected, or potentially infected with, COVID-19. They are no longer ‘janitors and maids’ they are now ‘environmental cleaning (or sanitizing) technicians.'
From 'Maid' to 'Tech' Thanks to COVID-19...
From Maid-to-Tech via COVID-19
As a result, these personnel are now not only dealing with potentially contaminated waste, but they are coming in contact with infected surfaces. They are also handling dangerous disinfecting chemicals (far more toxic) than ever before because they are using stronger cleaning products designed to kill the COVID-19 virus.
And, these personnel must now be protected from both the environments they are responsible for cleaning/sanitizing, as well as from the products they use in performing their work. To prevent potential Workers’ Compensation Claims arising out of environmental exposure, or exposure to the products they use, small businesses performing these services must conform to the OSHA created Guidelines for Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 that includes Basic Infection Prevention Measures and related Work Safety Practices designed to help keep employees safe.
But, there are also questions that these small Maintenance/Janitorial/Maid Service businesses need to be considering, if they have not already answered them. Has the job classification of what these workers are doing now, as opposed to what they were doing just a few weeks ago changed? Does the occupational exposure in terms of both the environment and the cleaning/sanitizing products being used warrant a new occupational classification for purposes of Workers’ Compensation (at a higher rate)? Not to mention, do these same factors warrant a pay increase, or at least a ‘hazard pay’ adjustment?
These are issues that both employers and their Workers’ Compensation Insurance Carriers should be considering. You, as your client’s ProAdvisor, should be addressing with your small businesses, if you have clients in the maintenance/janitorial/maid service these same questions because of the potential impact upon their finances. While PPP and other SBA assistance may have been available to help keep them in operation during these trying times, and in fact workload may have increased as the need for ‘sanitizing services’ suddenly came into demand, the additional exposures and risks grew with these circumstances. You had better make certain your client is prepared before these risks become reality.