Sharing Employee Bathrooms with another company
Good Afternoon SQF'ers,
I think I may already know the answer to this, but my management team is pushing back with options I think are still not going to fly as far as the SQF Food Defense Program goes.
Our facility shares a set of Men's and Ladies rooms that the Production Employees will be using with another company's employees. We lease the space and it was agreed that we would share those bathrooms. Now, from what I can tell, the Food Defense / Building Security program requires us to know who is in our plant at all times and non-employee visitors must be escorted while on the premises. We will have no way of knowing who is entering or exiting those bathrooms via the other company because they are not a secured facility.
I have recommended that we engage the full use of these bathrooms in order to comply. I just don't see any other way around it.
How are the bathrooms accessed? Is it possible to "lock" the other company out of your area and thereby limiting access to your production facility? Or would it be possible to put cameras on your door so that you can see who is entering your facility? Just some thoughts.
Right now, access to share bathrooms leaves these employees open to our production floor, locker room and break room.
There are no doors on any of these access points. We would have to put security badge doors on every open access point.
That's the only way we could control access I believe.
Spot on - that is what must be done.
Right now, access to share bathrooms leaves these employees open to our production floor, locker room and break room.
There are no doors on any of these access points. We would have to put security badge doors on every open access point.
That's the only way we could control access I believe.
Do you mean there's no doors between these areas and the production area?
That can't be good.
If the other company is a food company have a talk with their management and see what can be best practice for both of you. I'm sure they have the same concerns.
A wall to restrict access should be possible at a pretty reasonable cost. I don't expect it will need to be "bullet proof", just capable of keeping stray people out and access restricted to the point that you will know who is in your facility at all times. If the people are recognizable by your staff if they end up in the wrong place, it can make it easier to be accepted.
On a food safety level, I would want to make sure the other business has a policy that keeps ill employees from coming to work. that can make a shared facility a bit of a risk to your operation.