A COVID-19 screening procedure conducted early Friday morning (March 20) at a manufacturing plant east of Peterborough left at least one employee both angry and concerned — pointing to the challenges faced by companies that are attempting to keep their employees safe by conducting screening during the COVID-19 pandemic.
McCloskey International in Otonabee-South Monaghan makes equipment used in the mining, aggregates, recycling, and process industries. According to an employee who contacted kawarthaNOW, workers were told on Thursday (March 19) they would be screened on arrival for work early the next day, but the procedure put in place was much different than what they were told.
“We were told we would be screened in our cars when we arrived at work today, and everybody was kind of okay with that,” said the employee, who requested his name be withheld out of concern for his job. “But when we arrived, we were told to park our cars and go in one entrance, use the same punch clock, and then everyone was packed into a very narrow alleyway of a warehouse to stand and wait to have their temperature taken and sign a little questionnaire.”
“Everyone was packed tight together. There were no masks or gloves. I wore my neck warmer over my nose and mouth and I had my work gloves on.”
Joe Sullivan, McCloskey International’s manager of human resources and health and safety, says the company implemented the screening procedure to “make our facility as safe as possible” for employees. He points out the company was adhering to the recommendation from Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, issued last Monday (March 16), which advises that Ontarians avoid large gatherings of over 50 people.
“We never exceeded 50 people but we got to the point where it was just too much, so we asked people to disperse,” he explains. “It shouldn’t have been, but it got to the point where it was close to 50 people. When we look at it now, that just won’t be allowed to happen again.”
Sullivan admits there were problems with the screening procedure, but points out it was the first day the procedure was done.
“Can we do better? Absolutely. Our quest is to get this thing done right. It’s uncharted waters for many people and people are concerned. We want to make sure that we do everything we can to mitigate the concerns and keep people healthy. That was our first go at it today. The good news is, at the end of the day, all checked out fine. We had no symptoms, no major concerns. We’re very, very thankful for that.”
kawarthaNOW also contacted Peterborough Public Health, which did not comment on the screening procedure at McCloskey but instead pointed to infection control resources for workplaces, including providing clean hand-washing facilities, disinfecting surfaces, removing shared items (dishes, cutlery, magazines) from employee common areas, implementing staggered shifts, enforcing social distancing guidelines, and more.
“We’ve communicated all the steps were put to us through the public health unit, and posted our necessary signage indicating our staff respect social distancing,” Sullivan observes. “We’ve got sanitizer stations set up.”
Sullivan says McCloskey has also reached out to Peterborough Public Health for additional guidance on how to control groups that tend to congregate.
For his part, the employee noted he has serious concerns about being potentially exposed to the virus, as he has both elderly parents who are vulnerable to illness and young children.
“My supervisor said they were going to try something different Monday, so who knows what the plan will be then,” the employee said.
“We definitely are going to continue to screen,” Sullivan said. “That gives everyone peace of mind. For us, it was about making sure that we did that, and now turn around and scrub the system to make it even better and more effective and safer yet.”
“The last thing we want to do is scare people. We want to make sure we’re going in the right direction. The big find for us was that everyone screened well and there was no issue.”
