TNEC offers free trainings on COVID-19 worker safety

“We had a great response. All other April workouts are sold out, ”said Turcotte.
The workshops are facilitated by trainers from TNEC and other members of the consortium. All stressed the critical importance of immediately granting sick leave to sick or quarantined employees.
The first training was attended by occupational health and safety officials, union representatives, workers and supervisors. One of them was Alan Arrajj, a superintendent of construction project management based in the Boston office of Avison Young, an international real estate services company.
“I generally have 10 to 40 subcontractors on my site. Everyone has their own tools and are responsible for their own safety, but I am responsible for the general safety of the site, ”said Arrajj.
Although most of his company’s construction sites are now closed – Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has ordered all non-essential construction to be stopped – Arrajj said he is using the closure to have all heavy machinery and equipment cleaned. work areas. He also pushed for better bathrooms, more hand washing stations and a separate decontamination area that all workers can use.
“I feel very lucky to be able to take this training so that I can reinforce what needs to be done and what we are doing,” he said.
Erika Pouliot, director of environmental health and safety for High Liner Foods, a frozen seafood company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that is considered a critical business, said her business already has strong health and safety protocols for food and employees at its facilities across North America. , including frequent hand washing for workers and frequent disinfection of all work surfaces.
Now, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve added even more, including disinfection procedures for frequently touched items like radios and clocks. But decontamination is just the start.
“We are organizing staggered breaks and we have opened two additional break rooms so that each worker can sit at their own table for lunch. We have eliminated visitors and vendors, and drivers cannot enter factories, ”she said. “We also try to space workers on the floor as much as possible.”
High Liner Foods is also trying to obtain personal protective equipment for workers, including disposable masks, as homemade fabric face covers are not suitable for use in food processing plants, he said. she declared.