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Roleplay scenario on the impact of an influenza pandemic on an agency
During the day, a roleplay was played out to illustrate the impact of an influenza pandemic on an un-named agency in Canberra.

The exercise consisted of a series of people role playing agency managers with the conference audience playing the role of agency employees.

The focus was not on the national impacts but what happens to the agency and its staff.

The purpose of the exercise was to ensure that participants understood the practical issues which would have to be faced in the event of a pandemic.

Prepared by Athol Yates, 0402 419 583 athol.yates@homelandsecurity.org.au

The powerpoint of the roleplay is here.

During the day, we are going to be running a role-playing scenario to illustrate the impact of an influenza pandemic on an un-named agency in Canberra .

The exercise will consist of five people role-playing agency managers and you, the audience, playing agency employees.

The focus of this scenario is not on the national impacts but what happens within an individual organisation and to you, its staff.

The purpose of the exercise is to allow you to appreciate the practical issues which would have to be faced during a pandemic.

We are telling you this so that we don't have any War of the World type panic when Orsen Wells' did his radio show on an unprepared audience.

Listen to radio segment (MP3) Read text

Address by Agency CEO

Thank you for attending this staff meeting. As the chief executive of our agency, I am taking a personal interest in the influenza issue and you can rest assured that we will always put the safety of staff first in any decisions we make.

Today, I want to briefly address any concerns that you have about what is happening overseas.

As the Health Minister said this morning, there is no reason to believe that this new strain of influenza is going to appear outside the containment lines around the affected villages in Indonesia , let alone arrive on our shores.

However, it is important that we are prepared. While we have no direct role in the national pandemic plan, we do provide a vital service to Australians and it is our duty to ensure that we continue to deliver this unaffected. Our business continuity manager and her team have been working for several months on developing a plan for dealing with the consequences that may arise from a feared outbreak or an actual outbreak.

Before I hand over to her, I just want to make a final point. The Australian Government is well prepared for a pandemic and the Health Minister has said that we are one of the best prepared nations in the world. An influenza pandemic like the horror scenario that has been touted on current affairs shows on the commercial channels over the last week is not inevitable.

I will now hand you over to Sarah, our Business Continuity Manager.

The threat of an influenza pandemic is something our team has been looking at now for over 8 months. I believe we are as prepared as any other agency. You should be aware of some of the work we've done, such as developing a list of the most essential staff and their backups who must work if the agency is to provide a minimum of service.

Now that the Government has announced a Phase 4 Overseas pandemic alert, much of what we have been doing becomes relevant, so I'd like to take you through the agency's planned responses.

Firstly, and most importantly, it does not mean we are going to do anything drastically different from yesterday. However, what we are going to do is start practicing the measures that we need if - and this is unlikely - if we have instances of this new sort of influenza in Australia .

As you know, we have appointed an influenza manager who has been developing links with the health department and briefing the agency's management on developments. Please never hesitate to contact her if you have a question.

From this afternoon, we will be running voluntary education classes on preventative health measures such as wearing masks, washing hands and cough hygiene. As you know probably know, we have a stockpile of masks, gloves and cleaning products. These will be distributed to you once you have completed the training.

We are suspending all overseas travel and are contacting the 6 staff currently overseas to get them back home as soon as possible.

These are the major actions in our plan, but we also need you all to do a series of things.

Firstly, you need to review the list of critical activities which were thought to be essential to delivering services. Also, you need to identify any non-critical projects that can be suspended if we need to. Also, identify those staff who can be redeployed to critical activities if necessary.

Secondly, ensure that your contact details are up to date on the HR system. Make sure we have your contact details, the name of your partner or next of kin. We strongly advise you to give us your home phone number, mobile number and home email

Thirdly, start looking at the possibility of doing your work at home. We may encourage staff to work from home for a certain period. For some staff, this will be possible to some degree, for others it will be impossible. To help everyone, we are provide free skype headsets to all staff so that you can contact us and run conference calls easily from your home pc.

Now, I know you will have many questions, and I will do my best to answer them.

Q: Do we get Tamiflu?

A: We do not have a stockpile of Tamiflu or other anti-virals. These are held by the national stockpile and we have not been informed of who will get access to them. We are still waiting for an answer on this.

Q: If you tell us to work from home, will we be getting paid?

A: The HR section will be distributing our HR arrangements in the unlikely event of a full blown pandemic in the next week or so. My understanding is that we will be continued to be paid.

Q: If we get sick at work, what will happen?

A: You will be put in a separate room and your family contacted to pick you up. If they can't be contacted, we will use the agency car to take you home. We will also work out who you have been in close contact with and let them know of your illness. If the contact was close, we will ask them to go home and stay at home for 7 days, after which time, we can be sure that they haven't contracted the illness too.

12:00 Day 1

Listen to radio segment (MP3) Read text

A mask and bottle is put at the desk of each person.

Thanks everyone for coming. I'm encouraged not only by the high turnout here today, which shows that you are taking the influenza threat seriously, but also by the calm in the room and across the agency, which indicates the kind of measured and educated response I would have hoped for in our organisation.

With further news breaking about influenza outbreaks, we thought it would be better to bring you all together for training rather than to do it in small groups over the next 2 weeks. The agency wants to be 100% sure that all its staff are as well-informed and well-protected as possible.

I am now going to hand over to our Influenza Manager, Peter.

The aim of this presentation is to run you through the basics of infection control in our workplace. They are

I am only going to run through the last two points now as we will be having a session on the other points later today.

[The Influenza Manager will now runs through practicing good personal hygiene and correctly using personal protective equipment.]

I need to stress to you that the agency is doing everything it can to protect you during this crisis, but we can only do so much - the key steps to reducing your likelihood of catching this influenza - or any other illness for that matter - lie with you - we can show you how to act to reduce the chance that you will become sick, but it is up to you to put these measures into practice - not for a little while today but forgetting about it tomorrow, not when you start to feel sick, not when you hear that someone in the agency may be ill, BUT from right now and for the foreseeable future , until we can all be sure that the threat of a pandemic has passed.

Listen to radio segment (MP3) Read text

All the audience are to where masks.

Thanks again everyone for coming along today. Those of you who are outside the room, please be assured that today's presentation will be recorded and placed on the intranet for everyone to view. So, if you have trouble hearing or seeing what is going on, please look for the intranet presentation which should be up by COB today.

I don't want to play down the seriousness of the influenza situation at the moment, but it is important to remember that there have still been no instances of the new influenza strain arriving in Australia . However, we want you to be confident that we are conscious of our over-riding priority to make and maintain a safe environment for you.

As part of that is to make you feel confident that we are considering workplace issues. I will now hand over to Jane, our HR manager.

Yesterday, we circulated an FAQ on pandemic workplace arrangements.

I am sure you have many questions about them but before I answer them, I will reiterate the main points.

The Department of Health has advised us that in the event of a pandemic occurring we should plan for 50% staff absences for periods of about 2 weeks at the height of a severe pandemic wave, and lower levels of staff absence for a few weeks either side of the peak. Overall a pandemic wave could last for about 8 weeks. We should all think about how our duties could be done if we were away and have a back up-plan.

Staff absences can be expected for many reasons, staff themselves may be ill, some employees may have to stay home to care for the ill; people may feel safer at home to avoid crowded places; others may have to stay home to look after school aged children as schools are likely to be closed to increase social distancing to prevent the spread of disease.

Staff have been asking about their entitlements if they are away from work.

If you are home caring for the sick, you have entitlements, such as 18 days personal leave, this paid leave is also to cover you in the event of illness. Unpaid sick leave is also available, and we may be able to allow the use of other leave credits such as annual or long service leave.

If you do not wish to come to work for other reasons, then your entitlements are use of your annual or long service leave.

If a pandemic progresses, some government and other employees may be able to access what is called 'leave not elsewhere included'. We saw this rule used in exceptional circumstances during the January 2003 bushfires. We hope that we will not get to that situation.

To cover staff absences in some areas you can be asked to work in another agency that may be critically short of staff but you do not have to go. Employees have a right to refuse to perform work if they believe it is likely to lead to harm, but their belief must be based on reasonable grounds.

If a pandemic is confirmed, staff will not be allowed to come to work if they suspect they have influenza irrespective of how many sick leave credits they may have. Unwell employees should be advised to see a doctor. Staff should stay home until their symptoms resolve. Again if a pandemic occurs powers under the Quarantine Act may be enacted that will prevent people with influenza from mixing with others.

Some people have been asking about workers compensation in the event of a pandemic. If the illness was at the pandemic stage it would be up to the individual to prove that they caught it off another employee at work. The insurer for example Comcare would have to look at the facts and make a determination.

Depending on circumstances in the event of a pandemic, we may ask or allow staff to work from home. There are things to consider such as confidential file security, OHS considerations and work volume.

If staff do get sick while they are at work, we would ask them to isolate themselves and we would arrange for them to be transported home preferably by their family.

If you get sick and recover, you will be immune to the disease. This means that you should return to work as soon as you are able to, as we will really need you.

Q: How do we prove that we got sick at work?

A: You could keep a log of who you came in close contact with at work and show that they got sick before you and must have infected you.

Q: What about if we caught it on the bus on the way to work?

A: This may be difficult to prove and you may wish to reconsider coming to work on public transport, as one main factor in prevention is what they call social distancing. That is not being close to lots of people unless you have to. As I said before there may be cases where the insurer accepts a claim if the evidence was presented to them.

Q: The agency has a duty of care to provide a safe workplace so how are you going to do this?

A: Of course we always work hard to keep people safe at work, and we have a legislative responsibility under the OHS Act to do so. We are already putting in measures such as education and training. As you can see from coming here today we are educating you and giving you the information and training to help you keep yourselves and your families safe. We will also be providing cleaning materials and masks, and introducing methods to increase social distance such as meetings by telephone, and asking people at least one meter apart.

3:50pm Day 22

Listen to radio segment (MP3) Read text

The audience are to have different colour spots on the back of their name tags.

The Compere is to divide the audience up based on their colour.

Blue spots down the front together.

White spots in the seats behind but 1 meter apart.

Yellow along one wall.

Red along the other.

People sitting down need to wear masks.

Thanks everyone for attending the staff meeting.

Before we start, could we please take a minute to remember those who are not with us today.

(PAUSE FOR 20-30 SECONDS)

I will now hand over to our Influenza Manager, Peter.

The last few weeks have been a terrible time for everyone. We have all lost friends and loved ones. The most shattering moment was when our hopes about the vaccine vanished. We all thought that protection was just around the corner only to hear about the vaccine's terrible side affects. But, as I understand it, a safe vaccine should be only another few weeks away.

Firstly, I want to say thank you very much to all those down the front who have returned to work after recovering from the influenza. It is great that you have not only returned to work but are also helping those colleagues who have not been infected with buying food and essentials. This has proved to be a significant factor in the reduction in the number of people in the agency getting the disease.

There is also good news from several other countries that experienced the pandemic first. Their rate of infection has declined significantly which augers well for us.

Please keep up your regular cleaning - 3 hourly for all hard surfaces is the latest recommendation. Also, still wear your masks in public.

We are still trying to get in contact with Peter who was caught oversees when our borders closed. We have had no communications from him or DFAT. Unfortunately, we fear the worst but we will not stop trying until we get reliable information about him. We will let everyone know when that occurs.

Also, don't forget we have a small holding of essential canned food following the breakdown of basic supplies several weeks ago so if you are absolutely desperate we can help out a bit.

Before we break up from our weekly meeting, remember the key points about pandemic protection.

• . Eat a balanced diet.

• Get adequate rest

• Exercise on a regular basis

• Stop smoking and avoid passive smoking

4:45pm Day 76

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The Compere is to divide the audience up based on their colour.

Pink along one wall.

Red and Green along the other.

Address by Acting Agency CEO

It is with sadness that I address you today at this staff meeting. Since the death of our Chief Executive yesterday and the loss of James and Madeline several weeks ago, the position of acting Chief Executive has fallen to me as the most senior person. As you know, the formal appointments process has been suspended, so it has become a very difficult position to carry out effectively.

We all heard the Prime Minister's announcement and this is great news. However, as I understand it, 2 family members of staff are still sick. But with the supply of antibiotics returning, we believe they are most likely to recover.

While I have no details of what the Prime Minister means in terms of national expansion, you can be assured that the public sector will have a major role in rebuilding the economy. We will be there facilitating it and ensuring that we can get people back into jobs as soon as possible.

The instructions we did receive from DOFA this week reflect the budget pressures the Commonwealth is currently facing. As you know, tax revenue has collapsed and health expenditure has soared. In addition, we know that there are many projects which we will never resume as there are too many other priorities for government funds. Consequently, Finance has asked us to identify pandemic efficiency savings - they want a saving of about 10% immediately and 10% more by the end of the year, which unfortunately means reducing our staffing levels.

This we have had to do in areas which are non-core. We have been able to minimise the impact by placing people who were working in non-critical activities onto critical activities, and cancelling most contracted positions. However, we have had to identify 6 staff who are excess to our needs and these 6 people have already been informed and counselled. Fortunately, there are significant shortages in Finance and Treasury so these people can have positions in one of these organisation if they wish.

On that positive note, I would like to thank you for your calm, common sense and dedication through this crisis, and assure you that all of us in the agency are looking forward to a positive future, rebuilding both the agency and the country.