PHO Order Requires Employers to Re-Activate COVID-19 Safety Plans

On January 7, 2022, the provincial health officer announced an order requiring employers to re-activate their COVID-19 Safety Plans. WorkSafeBC has updated guidance and recommendations outlined below.

This replaces the previous requirement for employers to have communicable disease prevention plans in their workplaces. While communicable disease prevention plans and COVID-19 Safety Plans share some of the same fundamental principles, COVID-19 Safety Plans are formal, written plans with more rigorous controls and are more appropriate for periods of elevated risk, such as the one currently faced by B.C. workplaces by the Omicron variant. 

Re-activating your COVID-19 Safety Plan

COVID-19 Safety Plans provide employers with important measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission at their workplace. All employers are required to develop or update their COVID-19 Safety Plans to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in their workplace.

Many employers had COVID-19 Safety Plans earlier in the pandemic, and others may have maintained all or many of the measures from their COVID-19 Safety Plans. All employers are advised to review their COVID-19 Safety Plans to ensure that they are current and aligned with all guidance and orders from the provincial health officer.

Resources to help you re-activate or implement your plan

• WorkSafeBC updated COVID-19 Safety Plan template
• Industry-specific information
• HS Guideline G-P2-21 Communicable disease prevention, which provides more information about the workplace requirements to implement communicable disease prevention

Visit BCHA COVID-19 Safety Plan Page for Complete Inromation
Visit go2HR’s COVID-19 home page for:

• access our tourism and hospitality-focused COVID-19 safety plan template, with everything you need to prepare your new safety plan in one document
• register for free safety plan review service (go2HR's team of health and safety professionals will review your plan and give you targeted feedback)
• learn about key COVID-19 controls in the workplace
• register for BSAFE, go2HR’s training course on COVID-19 health and safety protocols