The National Civil Service Office (ONSC) urged public offices to strengthen preventive health measures in the work environment after the increase in infections by the omicron variant of covid-19. Through a statement, the ONSC recommended that the public sector leaders consider the implementation of the telework for 30 days.
The head of the office, Conrado Ramos, met this Wednesday with the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou, and the Ministers of Public Health and Labor and Social Security, Daniel Salinas and Pablo Mieres.
As of that meeting, the leaders are authorized “to use the teleworking tool to the extent that it is necessary to lower the peaks of contagion,” Ramos declared, considering that the public sector is more capable of using this tool. To implement it, three guides were formulated related to “the working conditions of officials”, as well as cybersecurity conditions and “the capacities of the hierarchs to carry out strategic planning” and monitoring that ensures the quality of the service.
“The situation will be evaluated within 30 days and it will be seen whether to continue with the same measures or not,” Ramos explained. The implementation of teleworking will depend on the type of service, since some offices are more likely to work remotely than others, and therefore each manager will evaluate it.
The measures to be strengthened are those recommended by the Ministry of Public Health in July 2021 for the return to work activity in the different dependencies. Within which, the ONSC prioritized: maintain non-pharmacological prevention measures, limit capacity based on activities, strengthen the ventilation of spaces and consider measuring CO2 in spaces with little ventilation or very crowded, as well as promoting and facilitating vaccination in workers.
