The Employers and Manufacturers Association is urging businesses to adapt to the restrictions of Alert Level 3 so they can stay open and keep trading.

“With Health Minister Chris Hipkins more or less ruling out Alert Level 4 restrictions today it’s important for businesses to remember that they can open under Level 3 restrictions as long as they meet the conditions,” says EMA Chief Executive Brett O’Riley.

“That means you can open if your staff can’t work from home, you can meet social distancing requirements of 1m within the workplace or 2m with customers, and you don’t have physical contact between you and your customers or deliveries.

“Level 3 does not mean you have to be an essential service, it means you can function if you meet those conditions. It is a not a complete lockdown like Level 4.”

Mr O’Riley says it was good to see how many businesses had adapted to Level 3 in the past couple of days in Auckland with many food service businesses trading on a click and collect basis or delivery only, and it is pleasing to see manufacturers and construction companies able to operate by adopting the Level 3 guidelines.

“We didn’t see that last time but we have seen businesses adapt this time.”

The EMA also had a message for Government to provide more notice and lead-in times for business to adapt to changing alert levels.

“It’s understandable that the Government moved so quickly to go to Level 3 this time and it doesn’t look like Auckland or the rest of the country is going to Level 4 as some feared. But if, for example, the announcement at 5.30pm tonight is for Auckland to go to Level 2, then businesses will have no time to prepare for that overnight and it would be a scramble for many businesses to gear up for a change that came in on Monday.”