All areas of Trinity will have to produce a safety statement and workplace audit before staff return to work, as part of the College’s roadmap to re-opening fully amid the pandemic.
Trinity has set up a Return to Work Committee to manage the transition back to College for staff, and current staffing levels will not be increased before an audit undertaken alongside the College safety officer, according to an email sent to staff members of Unite the Union last Friday.
The email, signed by Unite’s Local Trinity Committee and seen by The University Times, said the Return to Work group – a sub-committee of College’s Major Emergency Management Group – “will produce a roadmap for return to work in conjunction with the Government roadmap”.
The group will have to approve the plans in all areas of the College for a return to work before it happens, the email said.
Meanwhile, staff will be allowed to carry 10 days of annual leave forward into next year, but are likely to have to be asked to take outstanding annual leave before the autumn.
Trinity has been shut since March 12th, when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told schools and colleges to close their doors to help manage the spread of the coronavirus.
Thomas Deane, a Trinity media relations officer, wrote in an email statement to The University Times that staff “will be returning to work in Trinity very much in a phased manner, with the majority continuing to work from home in the coming weeks”.
“Risk assessments”, he added, “will be conducted for each area and School, and any plans put in place thereafter will of course abide by government recommendations to minimise the risk of contracting the virus”.
Last night, Provost Patrick Prendergast told staff and students in a College-wide email that campus will re-open to residents from next Monday, but that staff should not return to College yet despite a government directive that says they can come in to prepare online learning.
Prendergast acknowledged the government’s five-step plan for a phased re-opening of the country, which says schools and colleges will be opened on May 18th “for access by teachers for organisation and distribution of remote learning”.
But Prendergast said: “At this stage, teaching staff in Trinity should continue to work from home for this purpose and should not come into college.”
Residents will be allowed to return to the campus, and outside contractors working on building sites in the College will resume work “where social distancing is possible and in line with the government’s plan”.
At this time it is unclear just what the return to work for Trinity staff will entail. Prendergast has already confirmed that online classes are likely to continue into next year, along with a return to real-life contact “in a responsible way”.
While large lectures will be delivered online, smaller lectures, seminars and tutorials will return to campus, Prendergast said, in a video released on Twitter last week. Groups will, however, be moved into larger lecture theatres to allow for social distancing.
