Dear UP Community,

The University acknowledges the change in working arrangements necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still in our midst and has disrupted practices associated with the management of work, the workplace and work productivity.

The health and safety of our employees remains our top priority, and the employer continues to review its measures to ensure a safe workplace for the University community. In 2020 the University introduced a functionality on the Human Resources HCM/Service Portal on Peoplesoft to enable staff to confidentially declare any co-morbidities. Staff were requested to make use of the functionality as required in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 and the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002, which require employers to identify employees with a high risk profile and take specific measures under these circumstances.
 
With the persistence of the pandemic, and the requirement for the strict management of employee and student presence on campus, the University has supported the adaptation of working arrangements to provide for employees whose work can be performed remotely, allowing them to continue working from home as far as possible, subject to their maintaining a reasonable presence on campus for the purposes of supporting necessary work engagements and productivity. Additional provision was made to safeguard employees who have comorbidities, and may as a consequence have an increased risk of contracting the virus or suffering severe disease should they contract the virus, allowing them to continue working from home, where their work allows.

For those employees with comorbidities who can perform their work obligations remotely but elect to return to the workplace, the University has launched a comorbidities indemnity form that the employee will be required to complete in line with the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, as well as the Disaster Management Act directives. The indemnity form can be accessed via the intranet using the link below:

https://upnet.up.ac.za/psc/pshcmpra/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/NUI_FRAMEWORK.PT_LANDINGPAGE.GB

Please select the Declarations tile and navigate to Other Fluid Declarations.

For those employees who fall into the above category but do not have access to the electronic self-service space, the indemnity form will only be available on request through the HR business partner for the respective faculty or professional services department. This is to ensure the protection of the employees’ confidentiality.

Ms S Mbuyisa, Director of Department of Human Resources