Checks/rules for washing clothes of workers

Interpretation Laundry

Protective clothing may be cleaned by contracting the services of a specialised laundry, by laundering in-house or, in exceptional circumstances, by laundering by employees.

External contracted services must be incorporated within the company’s purchasing supplier approval programme (clause 3.5.3) and have systems of approval and continual assessment to ensure that the process is under control. This should be based on risk assessment and may include self-audit questionnaires where low-risk products are manufactured. The monitoring of the effectiveness of cleaning is likely to consist of visual assessment and the monitoring of complaints.

In-house laundering carried out on the company premises must be controlled. This is likely to be via HACCP-style principles, controls and validation data, such as monitoring of the temperature and detergent, specifying items not to be washed together, overseeing drying processes and visual inspection. The laundry will also be included in the programme of internal audits (clause 3.4.1).

Laundries (both in-house and contracted) must ensure that:

Home laundering may be deemed acceptable in low-risk operations such as produce packing or enclosed process areas where the clothing is worn primarily to protect the worker from the product (e.g. raw root vegetables). This needs to be controlled by written instructions to staff, to include how garments are to be washed (temperature, detergent, specifying items not to be washed together and drying instructions). Employees must be provided with a suitable means to safely transport washed garments from home to the workplace (sealable plastic bags or similar). There must be a defined responsibility within the company for monitoring the effectiveness of the system. This is typically achieved by visual inspection. There must also be a procedure and system for effectively dealing with any case where employees are unable to perform self-laundry, either through lack of diligence or through lack of facilities. This system must be capable of being brought into immediate effect once a problem has been identified.

Home laundering still requires appropriate care and attention to ensure that potential pathogens on clothes worn for work are removed or killed. For example, clothes worn for work should be washed separately from other laundry in an automatic washing machine using the hottest temperature the material of the clothes will withstand and the ‘full load’ setting. When thoroughly dried, the clothes should be ironed with a hot iron to further heat-disinfect the clothes.