Employee Screening: Hep A

“Knowing what to look for and when to look for it is vital part of serving safe food”

How do you recruit new employees?

In less than 5 minutes you can identify people who would be higher risk in a food or health care environment.

First, check their hands and fingernails. If they are rough, dry, and/or dirty this is a warning. If the nails are longer than 3mm they will more readily harbour pathogens and be more difficult to clean

Second, watch what they do with their hands. The more contact a persons hands makes with their eyes, nose, ears, mouth or other people the higher risk they pose for cross contamination.

These situations should not deny a person who has all the other credentials a job but they do dictate that careful training and monitoring of hand hygiene behaviour will be even more important.

Be interested in your Employees: Constructive Knowledge is a common legal principle often invoked in the USA and UK when cases of food borne illness are decided by the courts. This principle views an operator responsible not just for what he or she actually knows, but what they should have known, discovered or perceived. In other words, if you should have known, the law will assume that you did know.

For instance, if an employee spent a vacation in an area where hepatitis is endemic, the operator can be liable under constructive knowledge if the employee causes an outbreak of hepatitis A. The operator should know the health risks posed by his/her employees at all times.

Employee Screening Checklist:

1. Have all employees vaccinated for Hepatitis A.
2. Establish procedures that identify daily:
   • Personal hygiene standards (nails, hands, hair, skin)
   • Allergies & skin conditions
3. Establish hand wash regime that fits with employee workstation and personal profile. Visit: WIN Frequency Guide (Member Area)
4. Observe employees at work and note personal habits of risk. Adjust hand wash regime accordingly
5. Be diligent when employee has been absent from work
   • If ill, is recovery complete?
   • If traveling, to what areas (Hep A)?

Leadership Companies:

GlaxoSmithKline has a wide variety of vaccine products, including hepatitis A. For more information on their vaccine business please open attachment GSK EFS below