VACCINATION AT SOUTH PACIFIC BREWERY IS NOT MANDATORY, CONTRARY TO RECENT FAKE NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND CLOSED USER GROUPS.
As a responsible company that takes Health & Safety of its staff seriously, SP Brewery acted swiftly in February 2020 to implement measures to minimise the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 at the workplace.
Listed are some actions the Company took:
- Establishment of a Crisis Management Team to manage issues relating to COVID-19.
- Business Continuity Plan to maintain the Company’s operations and ensure employees are productive and work safely through the pandemic.
- Provision of masks to all staff in all four SPB locations.
- Daily temperature checks in all four SPB locations.
- Hand-washing stations installed at all SPB premises.
- Provision of hand sanitizers in all workspaces.
- Isolation rooms – Pom and Lae. This enables our Site Nurses to attend to unwell staff in a secure space.
- Split workplace and teams to minimise the impact of COVID on staff.
- Staff transport arrangement to ensure staff go to work and return home safely.
- Enablement of Working from Home by providing laptops and internet data.
- Provision of pocket hand sanitizers to all staff.
- Customer support (in Trade) by way of masks, sanitizers and awareness material.
- K10,000 donation to St John Ambulance to support their work during the pandemic.
- Weekly COVID-19 updates to keep staff abreast of information from WHO, the Health Department and PNG Government.
- Thermometers provided for positive cases who are isolated at home, plus paid leave during recovery phase.
- SPB paid for COVID-19 testing for possible cases.
- Deep cleaning of work sections.
- COVID vaccination awareness sessions at the workplace by Tok Stret Counselling and Dr Elizabeth Inaido (as part of her community service).
- Staff transport to vaccination centers during working hours since May 2021.
Staff continue to adhere to COVID-19 protocols implemented at the workplace to mitigate risk of infection and/or spread of COVID. Our efforts to ensure we have a healthy workforce must continue because the pandemic is not over.
Corporate Affairs Manager, John Nilkare, said:
“Our policy is that employees are free to make their own decision about being vaccinated or not, but that we do recommend that they do so.
“Our first value at the workplace is ‘Safety First’, thus, we place great emphasis in ensuring a health and safe workforce.
“Our Management Team (MT) has led by example by getting vaccinated. We have a fully vaccinated MT. Many colleagues have since followed their example.”
SPB Vaccination Rate = 80 %
“The Delta variant of the Corona virus is now creating havoc in Papua New Guinea. I encourage everyone to get vaccinated to ensure a safe workplace and community,” added Mr Nilkare.
