Coronavirus (Covid-19) info
We are going through an unprecedented time right now with the global Coronavirus pandemic. This is situation is impacting every single person and business, and is changing day-by-day and country-by-country. We’re continuously monitoring and reassessing how best to respond in light of new information and new restrictions. Ensuring the health and safety of our employees is our number one priority.
As part of the co-ordinated global effort to contain the Covid-19 virus, many Mobilecomm employees are required to work from home. We know that this isn’t easy, but we are committed to helping you make the best of remote working; we’ve got some great tips to help you stay efficient and take care of your physical and mental wellbeing.
Of course, there’s no ‘one-size fits all’ answer to address every concern. But we’re learning fast and taking on board feedback being submitted via HR to help us respond smarter and address your needs more effectively. So please keep checking in regularly for fresh advice. Remember: We’re all in this together.
Self-quarantine requirement
Mobilecomm has now taken self-quarantine procedures into use to ensure we minimize the likelihood of spreading the Corona virus within the Mobilecomm community. The requirement applies equally to personal and business travel to or transit through affected areas / countries, whether they are experiencing symptoms or not.
The mortality rate of the COVID-19 infection remains low. In most cases those infected make a full recovery and suffer relatively mild symptoms. Due to the current rate of spread of the disease to multiple countries and with countries imposing restrictions on travel, movement and social interaction Mobilecomm needs to consider the impact of its travel activities.
The virus is believed to have a 14-day incubation period, meaning that those who have contracted the infection are infectious for up to 14 days prior to showing symptoms. This means that by the time the person has an elevated temperature, cough or shortness of breath, they could have already passed on the infection to anyone they have been in close contact with.
One way to help reduce the spread of the infection within the Mobilecomm community is self-quarantining for 14 days and only returning to the office if you are not showing symptoms after this time.
This approach provides peace of mind for the traveler, and for fellow colleagues, that Mobilecomm is taking measures to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.
Self-quarantine requirements following travel
These requirements are the minimum Mobilecomm requirements however, there may be additional measures applied in some locations to comply with local government or health authority requirements:
- The requirement applies equally to personal and business travel to or transit through affected areas / countries, whether they are experiencing symptoms or not
- Any Mobilecomm employee, business partner, supplier or contractor that works in a Mobilecomm office and has returned from an “affected area / country” is required to self-quarantine for 14 days
- Self-quarantine means to not visit the Mobilecomm, supplier or customer offices and to work from home for a period of 14 days
- The 14-day period begins at the time of arriving back from the affected area (i.e. leaving the arrival airport)
- The requirement applies retrospectively to past travel within the preceding 14 days i.e. if you have returned from an area / country that has since been designated as an “affected area/ country”, you would need to self-quarantine for the remainder of the period. e.g. if you have returned 5 days ago, you should self-quarantine for the remaining 9 days
- If it is not possible for an employee to work from home / remotely due to their role, an exception will need to be evaluated by line management, HR and HSSE. Social Distancing while in the Mobilecomm, customer or subcontractor environment must be practiced during the 14 day period.
- If an employee that is required to self-quarantine following an approved business trip to an “affected area / country”, is not comfortable to remain at home due to susceptible family members, reimbursement for alternative accommodation should be agreed with the line manager and expensed through the normal expense process.
- When returning from any other destination, there is no requirement to self-quarantine unless you feel ill with symptoms.
Protect yourself and your colleagues
Symptoms of the Corona virus are like ‘flu and include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Prevention is through avoiding exposure and good routine hygiene.
You can help reduce your risk of getting respiratory illnesses, such as flus and influenza, by these means:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and help young children do the same. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throw the tissue in the trash.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
- Keep some distance from people who are obviously sick.
- Seek medical care early if you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing.
- Stay informed and follow advice given by your healthcare provider.
For more general tips and advise, visit WHO webpages.
Business critical roles that cannot be done working remotely
Guidance for working in Mobilecomm or customer offices and field servicesThere are some roles that cannot be completed without a person being physically present, either in the field or office or at a customer’s site to maintain our critical systems. This guidance will assist decision makers by providing a framework for analysis. It is not intended to be a list of all possible considerations and decision makers should consider other factors that may be relevant to their situation, such as local government mandates.
This is a dynamic situation. We will update this based on changes in the situation and new learnings, so please check for updates to this Guidance
Field services rules
Go / no-go decisions
1) Assess the role for criticality:
- Does the task need to be done to ensure continuity of critical networks?
- Can it be completed remotely?
- Can the times of the activity be altered to create distance (avoiding others)?
- If the task is not needed to ensure continuity, and customer agrees the work is not imperative, then stop the task if the task creates risk from a COVID-19 perspective. If it can be done remotely, then it would be preferred to do it remotely.
Assess the risks
2) Risk assess the role from a COVID-19 perspective:
- What human to human contact does it require?
- Is it work in a public area or work in a private property with limited access (look at the time of day when the task will be done)?
- Is there climbing or other work that requires close physical inspection under the Mobilecomm Life Saving Rules (e.g., PPE inspection)?
- What is the transport method related to the task – personal or public transport (social distancing must be maintained)?
- Can the team members be located in the area the work is being conducted to remove transport?
- How can personnel changes in the team be minimized?
- Are the individuals indicating that they have a higher risk of illness, based on self-assessment?
Required measures
3) Remind everyone of the importance of basic hygiene and social distancing and follow recognized health authorities’ recommendations.
- Good basic hygiene will prevent the spread of COVID-19 and your contact with COVID-19.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throw the tissue in the trash.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
- Take your own food and water to the area. Do not share food or water and keep the social distancing process in place even during breaks.
Take steps to protect the team members.
- Provide those that do not have access to fixed washing facilities with hand sanitizer.
- Advise all team members about social distancing – for teams receiving goods – minimize interaction; supervisors must remind the teams daily of the need to respect these recommendations.
- Ensure that you have all needed personal protective equipment locally required.
Be rigorous in applying COVID-19 measures in teams:
- Anyone with symptoms or who is not feeling well stays at home.
- Anyone who has been to an “affected area” (example: site that has had a known COVID-19 case) must self-isolate for a period of 14 days.
- Anyone who has been in close contact of a confirmed COVID-19 case must self-isolate for a period of 14 days.
- Anyone who needs to self-quarantine for whatever reason will not be involved in in-person activities.
Personal health considerations for workers
4) Direct employees and external workers to self-asses their individual health situations following authorities’ and company guidance, based on these considerations:
- Having any underlying health conditions will make an individual more susceptible to becoming ill.
- If the employee’s close family members have any underlying health conditions that would also make them more susceptible to becoming ill.
- Certain circumstances such as contact with a contaminated individual or travel to an “affected area” will require a 14-day quarantine.
- The existence of any COVID-19-like symptoms should prompt the individual to contact their trusted medical professional or the medical service on site, if available.
Note: This self-assessment should be conducted privately by the individual employees. Individuals should not be required to provide answers to these questions orally or in writing, nor should such assessment be shared with managers or other employees. Rather, these should be a self-reflection by the employee. We don’t want to encourage or require disclosure of personal information, especially health-related information (the collection or processing of which is considered illegal in many countries). Workplace medical exams (including fever scans) should only be performed where allowed by local law. Medical exams should be conducted by trained medical professionals subject to the professional secrecy duties. Resulting personal health data should be protected by appropriate security measures and treated as confidential and private. It should not be shared with HR, except for purposes of registering absence due to sickness, or as prescribed by local employment law.
Rules for field operations
| Go / No Go Decisions | - Works only proceed if telecoms is listed as an “essential service” in the country
- Works only proceed if task is “critical” to the service provision and operation of the network and it cannot be postponed.
- Works only proceed if the tasks cannot be performed remotely
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| Personal responsibility | - Team members MUST NOT report for duty if they display symptoms of COVID-19.
- If a team member is diagnosed with or has symptoms like that of COVID-19 and has not been tested they must not rejoin the team for 14 days after their symptoms have gone away and they are well again.
- The remainder of the team must self-isolate for 14 days.
- Team members MUST NOT report for duty if a member of their family has been confirmed with having COVID-19, or has untested symptoms of COVID-19, for a period of 14 days and only if other family members have not developed symptoms.
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| Personal risk factors | - Team Members with underlying health conditions known to place them at higher risk should they contract COVID-19 should not conduct field work.
- Team members with close contact with family members who have underlying health conditions should not conduct field work – or they should organize their work to include alternative accommodation, away from the at-risk family member. If they develop any symptoms during this time (even if mild) they should have a 14-day self-quarantine period before coming into contact with the at-risk family member.
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| Transport rules | - The use of public mass transport is prohibited where a 2m/6ft separation cannot be maintained.
- Limit of 2 people / car where possible when teams self-drive or 3 with a driver.
- Driver / engineer combinations must remain constant for the duration of restriction period where possible. Drivers should be exclusive to the team they are working with.
- Teams, including the driver, where possible should stay in the area in which they are working – not travel to and from / to home everyday,
- Driver must clean internal handles and high-touch areas at the start and end of every day.
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| Team rules | - Team make up (the people within a team) must remain constant.
- Teams should work in isolation – no two teams should be working on a Mobilecomm site at any one time. Where this is not possible work should always be coordinated to maintain 2m/6ft working distance between the teams.
- Team briefings should be conducted with 2m/6ft separation at all times.
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| Social distancing | - Maintain 2m/6ft separation whereever possible whilst conducting tasks.
- Avoid human contact at warehouses/logistic centers.
- Team members must not enter offices at the warehouse or supplier offices.
- When required to enter customer operational sites team members should avoid entering the offices at operational sites e.g. exchanges, data centers and switch sites, however they may need to transit through them to access operational areas.
- Face to face meetings with customers for management or administration purposes are not permitted.
- Site inspections and visits should be limited to high risk activities or critical system integrations / acceptances.
- Team Members and Mobilecomm representatives should refuse to sign acceptance documentation using shared pens or enter details in another person’s laptop or other equipment.
- Site auditors are not permitted to touch / handle PPE, records or equipment, these should be photographed for recording purposes.
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| Hygiene measures | - All field teams MUST have the facility to sanitize their hands either by sanitizer or with a sufficient supply of water and soap.
- Hands should be washed / sanitized as a minimum:
- Before entering the vehicle
- Before and after drinking / eating
- After accessing the site and unloading tools and equipment
- Tools should not be shared, if they need to be, they should be wiped with disinfectant/sanitizer before sharing / exchange between people.
- The Supervisor MUST reinforce these measures on a daily basis through toolbox talks and regular discussions with the team.
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| Personal protective equipment | - Based on CDC and WHO guidance Mobilecomm does not demand the wearing of masks by team members unless required by local rules and legislation for healthy team members.
- In normal Mobilecomm operations there are no activities that require the use of masks, aprons, gloves or shields.
- Masks prevent the spread of the infection from a person who has it, masks provide limited prevention to a person wearing a mask from contracting the COVID-19.
- Where masks are available, small numbers should be included in first aid kits to enable them to be given to a person who has stated or displays symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19 for use by that person until they can be isolated.
- Where masks are required to be worn specific instructions must be given to team members on how to use and dispose of masks.
- If teams working for Mobilecomm are required to enter and work in environments where masks are required, they must receive specific instruction on their use.
- There are no regular and foreseeable tasks conducted by Mobilecomm teams or contractors where gloves would be considered a required protective measure for COVID-19.
- Gloves, if not worn and removed properly can increase the spread of the COVID-19; the most effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is with good and regular washing of hands with soap and water or sanitizer if water is not available.
- Personal Protective Equipment such as harness, lanyards, helmets and gloves for working at height should not be shared and should not be stored together.
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| Rest and meal breaks | - Supervisors should remind all team members of the need to wash / sanitize hands at the start and the end of meal / break times.
- Do not share utensils, dishes, mugs or food between team members.
- Maintain 2m/6ft distance among team members at all times.
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| Permissions and permits | - All teams working on behalf of Mobilecomm must comply with movement permits and local restrictions at all times.
- Where required by local authorities all teams must be in possession of relevant passes, paperwork or exemptions at all times.
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| Customer requirements | - Teams should check that customer COVID-19 controls are consistent / aligned with Mobilecomm’s requirements.
- Where there are specific customer requirements at a site (includes customer offices) and these do not require Team Members to provide personal or identifying data, these requirements must be complied with. If there is any doubt on the customer requirements, advice should be sought from HSSE.
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| Refusal to work | - Mobilecomm will not require any person to travel to an area / event / venue or country if they believe that the health risk is too high for them personally or for their family members.
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