As the business community seeks to restart their business operations, ever aware of the Covid-19 pandemic risks, concern for the welfare and safety of workers and customers dominates the consideration of every business. In recognition of this “new” reality, the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce convened a symposium geared at providing members with information on scientifically tested and proven approaches to successfully mainstreaming health and safety considerations as they operate in the new post Covid-19 environment.
On June 18th 2020, The Chamber hosted Webinar titled “Ensuring health and Safety in the New Workplace” which brought together firms from many different industry sectors to participate in an interactive and informative dialogue. Experts provided insight in three pertinent areas: (1) Cleaning and sanitization protocols, (2) Air quality protection (3) Utilizing service excellence to secure customer and employee health.
The subject of “cleaning and sanitization protocols” was led by Lewis Industries who demonstrated practices which can reduce the risk of exposure to harmful micro-organisms, while H&L Environmental Services Ltd. addressed the subject of environmental controls for protection against air contaminants in the workplace including providing a visual overview of biological contaminants such as the Flu and Covid-19 virus and how they spread. The symposium concluded with a presentation and discussion led by Incognito on securing customers’ and employees’ health through service excellence.
Participants were provided with practical and useful information and tips on how they need to organize and prepare their businesses to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 and as such provide their employees and customers with the confidence that their operations were safe to both.
The symposium discussed and debated workable and practical options for safe operations which led to the raising of concerns regarding national systems to alert the public early if there was an outbreak as well as the availability of information on the appropriate response of business and the country in such a situation. This, they thought would be useful to prevent panic among citizens and unnecessary business and economic shutdown.
The Chamber of Commerce remains prepared to ensure its members have access to necessary and valuable information on enhancing occupational health and safety practices among its members. The Chamber also plans to continue to provide support and services to members and the wider business community at this critical time as it has done since 1884. Members who missed the symposium should contact The chamber for access to the recorded version.