Minneapolis Review

Thousands of manufacturing, industrial and office employees returned to work April 27 in Minnesota with safety plans in place to keep COVID-19 at bay.

After more than a month of being closed, Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order April 23 allowing approximately 20,000 non-critical businesses to reopen that create a mandatory COVID-19 preparedness plan.

Kevin McKinnon, the deputy commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said this will affect approximately 80,000 to 100,000 workers in the state.

“This is really a limited first step for us in safely reopening businesses,” McKinnon said, according to KSTP. “The first thing we recommend is those that can work at home and can continue to telework, we really encourage that as much as possible.”

Though businesses are still being encouraged to work from home, each business planning to open must create, share and implement their COVID-19 preparedness plan following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Minnesota Department of Health guidelines ensuring measures in social distancing, worker hygiene and facility cleaning and disinfection. 

They must also enforce health screenings of all employees, ensuring sick employees stay home.

Taking employees’ temperatures is not mandatory, but those who contract the coronavirus while at work should file a worker’s compensation claim.

“If they come to work and say right away they're ill, they should go home,” Ellen Paine, with the Department of Health, said, according to KSTP. “If they become ill during the day, they should go home.”

State officials encourage companies to take disciplinary action if the new preparedness plan is not followed by an employee and encourage employees who don’t feel safe returning to work to voice those concerns to their employer before reaching out to OSHA.

Specialty LEGO kit manufacturer Brickmania in northeast Minneapolis is one of the businesses implementing their preparedness plan and headed back to the warehouse this week.

“We were really surprised,” Brickmania Owner Dan Siskind said. “Someone actually called me halfway through and told me to turn (Thursday's briefing) on because we were preparing for two weeks from now to be able to bring employees back.”

Siskind used the four days after the briefing to prepare the warehouse for reopening.

“Starting Monday, you’ll have to fill out a questionnaire about your health,” he said, according to KSTP. “Once we’re able to do temperature screening we will actually be doing that daily.”

Creating 20-foot square workspaces, Siskind said employees will never be within six feet of one another.

“I'm really grateful,” Siskind said, according to KSTP. “I think it's a good move as far as we are able to be in a position where we're able to maintain social distancing.”

Brickmania has a sanitation station at the entrance, will have doors propped open to minimize contact and has created one-way pathways to ensure safe distancing.

Though the Department of Labor and Industry said preparedness plans do not need to be submitted to the state for approval, they must be made available upon request and be posted throughout the workplace with mandatory training for employees upon returning to work.