Meet your Duty of Care Obligations

ARE YOU MEETING YOUR DUTY OF CARE OBLIGATIONS?

This means you are required to take all the necessary steps to ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of your people.  An employer's Duty of Care can be based on several factors:

• Who is working - consider individual risk factors (e.g. assessment of pre-existing health conditions).
• Where they are working (e.g. different country laws and standards).
• What they are doing (e.g. working from home vs. working on a remote site, business travel vs. international assignment).

Most organisations will be operating in such a way that many of the above factors apply. This will increase the complexity of your Duty of Care to your employees. For example:

• The laws that apply to someone in their home country may change when they travel or work abroad.
• A COVID-19 vaccination and testing approach might not be defined in current local law, yet a policy is necessary for business continuity.
• The cultural perceptions in the employees' operating country differ from your corporate policies (e.g. application of gender / sexual orientation equality measures).

How does an employer navigate the requirements today and anticipate those of tomorrow?