NECESSARY MEASURES TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTION

From March 5th 2020, Moscow has introduced a high-alert regime due to the threat of coronavirus infection. What does this mean for employers and what practical steps should be taken?

The Order of the Mayor of Moscow No.12-UM (“The Order”) obliges all employers operating in the territory of Moscow to take a number of preventive measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV):

• Ensure that the body temperature of employees is measured in the workplace, and that people with high temperatures are suspended from work;
• Assist workers in enforcing the self-isolation regime at home;
• Immediately provide information to the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) about all contacts of the sick employee, which he/she had in connection with his/her performance of work functions;
• Ensure that the premises, where the affected person was located, are disinfected.

The high-alert regime has also been introduced in other regions of Russia (e.g. Lipetsk Oblast, Amur Oblast, Novgorod Oblast, Kursk Oblast).

It is worth noting that, in accordance with part 1 of Article 20.6 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses, a failure to fulfill the stipulated responsibilities, to protect the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies, may result in an administrative fine of the following amounts:

• For officials – from 10,000 to 20,000 RUB (about 122–244 Euro*);
• For legal entities – from 100,000 to 200,000 RUB (about 1,220–2,440 Euro*).
  *at the exchange rate of the Bank of Russia quoted on March 11, 2020.

The Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses and the Law of the Moscow City ‘The Code of the Moscow City on Administrative Offences’ provide for other types of administrative liability for violations of the Order.

Also, if violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules have caused mass disease, or people intoxication, including the death of a person, and if the fact has been determined of withholding information about the circumstances, that pose risks to human life and health, the guilty persons can be prosecuted under Article 236 and 237 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

A list of recommended practices developed by ABU specialists to enforce the provisions of the Order as it relates to the obligations of the employer:

• Prepare an in-house instruction with the names of responsible persons of the company’s divisions, and areas of responsibility, for implementation of the provisions of the Order;
• Daily, measure the body temperature of workers in the workplace;
• Regularly collect information on trips made and planned: personal and business trips of employees to the countries specified in the Order, as well as to other countries with adverse situation and a threat of spreading of the new coronavirus infection;
• Regularly disinfect the surface of tables, door handles and phone handsets;
• Ensure that employees having obvious symptoms of acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI) are suspended from their workplace;
• Organize employees with obvious symptoms of ARVI to work in remote-access mode;
• Bring to the attention of company employees the need to observe the self-isolation regime.

Please note that all the information provided in this newsletter is taken from open sources. Neither ABU Accounting Services LLC, nor the authors of this mailing, are responsible for the consequences of decisions made on the basis of the presented information.