French companies will have a week to adopt new face mask rules: minister

A employee wearing a protective face mask works at the Brosserie francaise ? Bioseptyl plant in Beauvais as French workers start to wear mandatory masks in open working spaces in France, September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

French companies will have around a week to adopt new, strict rules on the compulsory wearing of face masks in the workplace to curb the spread of COVID-19, employment minister Elisabeth Borne said on Tuesday.

Borne told LCI TV that staff working alone, or in open-plan workspaces where there were relatively few staff with big spaces between workers, would not have to wear masks.

Employees wearing protective face masks work at the Brosserie francaise ? Bioseptyl plant in Beauvais as French workers start to wear mandatory masks in open working spaces in France, September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

Employees wearing protective face masks work at the Brosserie francaise ? Bioseptyl plant in Beauvais as French workers start to wear mandatory masks in open working spaces in France, September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann