Gov’t studying long-term work-from-home measure

Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that the Government is currently looking at creating further work-from-home policies for the general workforce, which he said could be implemented if the coronavirus pandemic remains with Jamaica for a protracted period.

The latest orders under the Disaster Management Act, the key piece of legislation being used by the Government to respond to the public health crisis, imposes an obligation on employers in the private sector to ensure that work that can be done from home take place there.

The work-from-home order was previously limited to the public sector.

"If this becomes a long-term measure, meaning that this could be with us for six months, if that is the course of the epidemic, then we would have to develop further policies around that to help to guide employees and employers. That is currently being studied," Holness told Parliament on Tuesday.

He said that some private sector companies have submitted work-from-home policies to the Government.

"We are currently looking at how we can align them and make some of them general," the prime minister said.

And addressing the matter of a suggested islandwide lockdown, Holness said that "it is not an easy thing to lock down a country and economy as complex as Jamaica's".

"We have given directives (to the security forces) that there must be a plan if it is necessary," he said. "The Government cannot be careless about these things so we have to plan them out very carefully ... our approach is to gradually use the measures and use the measures that are appropriate to the circumstances."