South Pacific Brewery have advised that vaccination is not mandatory, contrary to recent dissemination of fake news on social media and closed user groups.
SP Brewery take the Health and Safety of its staff seriously and as a responsible company and since February of 2020, it became vigilant in implementing measures to reduce the risk in transmission and spread of COVID-19 in the work place.
These are some of the measures actioned by the company:
- 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
To alleviate the risk of infection and/or spread of COVID, the staff of SP Brewery continue to adhere to the protocols implemented at the work place ensuring a safe working environment as the pandemic still looms.
Corporate Affairs Manager, John Nilkare said that the company’s policy allows staff to freely make their own decisions on whether to be vaccinated or not, but do recommend they be vaccinated.
Safety First is key and the brewery places great emphasis on ensuring a healthy and safe working space for its staff.
