Study of the ergonomic - organizational response of large companies to the safety threats caused by COVID-19 virus - case study

Abstract

The subject of this study is the functioning of companies with a large number of employees in the conditions of a pandemic, on whose work the life and work of the majority of the population of a country largely depend. Such are, for example, companies from the energy sector. If the infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus were to spread in such companies, the consequences for the life and work of citizens would be incalculable. Through the control of human - object interaction, ergonomics contributes to preventing the transmission of infection. In order to assess the application of ergonomic, organizational and safety measures to prevent the spread of infection, a questionnaire was formed in this paper. It was used in a case study that included a company of national importance with a large number of employees, which operates within the Electric Power Industry of Serbia. The research included 158 employees in this company. Observation, interviewing and insight into relevant company documentation were used as control methods. The results of the research showed a high agreement of the results collected by the mentioned methods. The study showed that most ergonomic measures are applied to suppress the transmission of the infection, as well as that they give satisfactory results. However, one of the biggest problems is group work, when it is often not possible to maintain the prescribed distance between employees. In this regard, the new role of ergonomics and its experts was emphasized, which consists in redesigning work tasks and the workplaces in a way that will not endanger work efficiency, and which will contribute to preventing the spread of infection among employees.