Advising on workplace PPE regulations across the globe

Over the last 18 months, COVID regulations in countries across the world have changed rapidly to mirror the spread and fluctuations of the pandemic.

For companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, keeping up with what is required of them, where and when, has proved especially challenging.

The MDR ONE team has helped a number of clients manage and overcome these challenges by advising on international legal matters in a centralised and integrated way.

Throughout the pandemic, the MDR ONE team supported an EMEA organisation with employees spread across multiple countries, each with their own rules about employees wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in the workplace and the employer’s duty to supply suitable face masks. They turned to us to keep them up to date with the evolving regulations.

The team was able to analyse the complex and diverse legal obligations and devise a concise and unambiguous means of advising the client in relation to its facemask obligations. As the laws changed, the team were able to categorise jurisdictions as being either:

  • Red: an explicit legal obligation to provide facemasks to employees in the workplace.
  • Amber: the legal obligation falls on employees to wear face masks, which the employer must either supply or consider supplying to meet its ongoing health and safety obligations.
  • Green: there are no explicit or limited obligations on either employees or the employer to wear or provide/enforce wearing facemasks at work.

Provided with monthly reports using three easily understood and visual categories the client was able to quickly identify the current legislation and the day-to-day practical obligations for mask wearing across all their operating territories.

By drawing on our international network of expert local lawyers, we provided one clear solution from one point of contact, making multi-jurisdiction employment considerably simpler for our clients.

To discover more about the MDR ONE team, click here.

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