Facemasks will be compulsory in all shops in England from this Friday, however, as it stands now, shop workers will be exempt. As with everything surrounding Coronavirus, it’s caused great debate. I think we can all agree that with over 45,000 deaths, it’s a bit late to only just be making face masks compulsory, particularly in places like supermarkets which have been open throughout the pandemic, but what are the implications of making staff exempt?
Having spoken to a number of people including those who work in shops and supermarkets and those who don’t, it seems there are very valid arguments both for and against the exemption of staff from the mandatory wearing of masks.
The first, and most obvious argument against the exemption comes down to the logical question of ‘why should they?’. Why should the people coming into contact with so many others be exempt? And the question following on from that which many customers will be asking, ‘why should I wear one if they’re not?’ And this is a fair point, many of the people I spoke to remarked that staff should be setting a good example by wearing them. Many also noted that they would be blatantly hypocritical to demand members of the public wear masks without doing so themselves, although, as some employees have been told, it’s the job of the police to enforce the regulations, with shop workers being encouraged to avoid confrontation with customers who aren’t wearing masks. Last but not least, there’s the simple fact that the more people who wear masks, the better. Whilst there are lots of different statistics floating around at the minute, they all agree that masks significantly reduce transmissions of COVID-19, with one WHO study suggesting that they reduce transmissions by around 80%.
From this, you might think that there’s an easy conclusion to be drawn, staff shouldn’t be exempt. However, having spoken to people who work in shops, it’s clear there’s a number of very valid reasons that staff welcome the exemption.
Of course the biggest factor is personal comfort. Customers are being asked to wear masks for the duration of their time in the shop, perhaps only a short period of 10 or 20 minutes. However, shop workers are facing 8 or 9 hour shifts wearing them, which I’m sure we can all appreciate is a much more unpleasant undertaking. Shop work can also be physically demanding, with people on their feet for long periods of time, walking long distances over the course of a shift and lifting heavy objects. All these things can make staff sweaty and short of breath at the best of times so it’s understandable that wearing a facemask might exacerbate this. Facemasks also create an additional barrier that can be exclusionary for the deaf or hard of hearing. One supermarket worker explained how elderly customers were already struggling to communicate through their own masks and the plastic screens in front of the tills, without adding a third barrier to further hinder communication during transactions.
There’s also a number of very pragmatic arguments for the exemption, such as the other measures in place in many shops. Across different businesses visors are being provided as an alternative to masks and plastic screens are up in front of many tills across the country, creating a barrier between staff and customer, which arguably renders a facemask unnecessary. Staff are also largely still attempting some level of social distancing while on the shop floor and are being held accountable for doing so, whereas the public aren’t and are generally making little effort to adhere to social distancing anymore.
And last but not least, there’s the simple fact that staff have lasted this long without face masks. Supermarket workers, especially, have been working throughout the pandemic without facemasks being compulsory and, with most customers not wearing one, to be only making masks mandatory now almost seems pointless. It seems the government is just doing this now in response to the criticism they’ve received for not issuing clear enough guidelines. We all know this should’ve come into effect in March or April to have a tangible impact on the spread of the virus and the nationwide death toll.
It seems there’s no clear answer right now on whether staff should be exempt from wearing a facemask. From everyone I spoke to, there seemed to be a divide between those who think staff should be leading by example, and shop workers, who are, on the one hand, dreading long, sweaty shifts under their masks, and, on the other, fearing confrontation with customers for not wearing them. Whichever side you’re on, the fact remains that even if staff choose not to wear them, but customers do, everyone will be safer.
Louisa Merrick-White
Featured image courtesy of Russ Allison Loar on Flickr.
Louisa Merrick-White
I’m a University of Sheffield graduate keen to build a career in writing and journalism. I love writing opinion pieces on culture, society and when I’m feeling brave, politics.