Health and safety play a key role when the staff of the University of Eastern Finland starts to return to campus.
Next Wednesday, on 17 June, the staff of the University of Eastern Finland will gradually start returning to the university’s campuses. The first ones to return are employees whose duties require presence on campus as well as employees who wish to return at this point (employees belonging to a medical risk group may not return). The university’s facilities can be accessed with an access badge until the end of July.
The university has instructed that the number of employees working on campus may not exceed half of the normal; however, excessive bureaucracy should be avoided in the interpretation of this instruction. The main thing is to ensure that the number of employees working on campus is significantly smaller than normally, and that those on campus follow the general safety and hygiene guidelines (please see the image attached). The head of the department/school/unit must always have information about which employees are working on campus, and each unit can decide on the way employees keep the head updated about their presence on campus.
“The method used for keeping track of employees’ presence on campus at different times isn’t important. What is important is that this information can be accessed, in one way or another, also later on,” Director of Administration Tuomo Meriläinen says.
Avoid all travel abroad
The university has also revised its guidelines relating to travel. Business travel abroad continues to be prohibited. The Finnish Government still recommends that also recreational travel abroad be avoided. If an employee travels abroad (recreational travel), he or she must remain working from home for 14 days after returning to Finland. Salary will be paid normally during this 14-day safety period.
The Finnish Government has lifted restrictions on domestic travel, and domestic travel is allowed while observing the safety guidelines.
“I hope that everyone will keep a cool head when it comes to travel during the summer holidays. I’m confident that our staff members will be responsible about travel and that any possible self-quarantine periods following travel abroad won’t prevent them from performing their duties,” Rector Jukka Mönkkönen says.
Wash your hands, keep a safe distance to others and monitor your health
Safety and good hygiene have a visible role on the campuses: info displays remind of the importance of hand washing and safe distances, and separate instructions have also been drawn up for staff lounges and shared workstations.
Cleaning and ventilation in the university’s facilities have been intensified, and hand sanitizer is available in the common areas. Hand sanitizer and protective gloves are ordered in a centralised manner via the university’s porters, who will return to work normally on 17 June. The university will cover the costs of these PPEs for the autumn 2020, but the units should take PPE orders into consideration in their budget for 2021.
Monitoring your health is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Do not come to the campus if you have any symptoms of a respiratory infection. You can find an online COVID-19 symptom check-up in the Omaolo service at https://www.omaolo.fi/en
Questions regarding these topics should primarily be sent by email to COVID-19(at)uef.fi.