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Help employees return to work
The quicker you rebuild, the quicker your employees can return to work. Although in some cases, you can make alternative arrangements while you rebuild so they can work from home or a temporary location. They may also need some replacement equipment. Most importantly you need to ensure they are getting paid, which may mean you need to re-establish your payroll system.
Wherever your employees work, you also need to ensure you’re following normal Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) regulations and provide them with a safe working environment.
In a disaster scenario, it may also be possible that your employees have sustained some damage at home or even lost family members. If they are able to return, it may be useful to provide them with counselling services to help them cope during the difficult times.
In the case an employee can’t return to work, you may need to hire someone to replace them or have an existing employee do the work.
What to do…
- The Fair Work Ombudsman provides businesses with a Has your work been affected by floods or other natural disasters? page to help answer some of the employee related issues that may arise.
- Your local OH&S agencycan provide you with specific advice on workplace safety during a cleanup. Some resources currently available include information on:
- specific workplace issues that may arrive after a flood & storm in Queensland, on the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland website.
- Workplace safety during flood recovery in Victoria, on the WorkSafe Victoria website.
- For a list of free counselling services, see our Seek help page.
