COVID-19 Safety Measures

ET Design-Build institutes measures to reduce coronavirus (COVID-19) impact during essential business

As a national facility design and construction services provider in the solid waste and recycling arena, ET’s work was deemed essential from the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, ET Design-Build has implemented health and safety practices to protect its employees at all of our office locations as well as those who work on construction sites. New company policies are addressing the challenging aspects prompted by the pandemic’s threat to help all of our internal and external partners navigate this challenging time.

Whether at any of our 13 offices or our construction sites, health and safety measures are protecting employees and clients from acquiring and spreading coronavirus. Not only has ET responded quickly to the recommendations prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ET has integrated additional measures to ensure worksite safety. The CDC’s coronavirus guidelines and plans can be viewed at www.CDC.gov.

Summarized below are some of the recent personnel policies we have employed:

  • For the duration of the pandemic, ET encourages employees to work from home, whenever possible
  • ET will provide employees with additional sick leave, whether they are ill themselves or caring for a sick child or family member
  • ET will provide supplemental pay for employees who must report to active job sites to keep construction activities moving forward
  • When employees return to sites where regular work is resuming, ET will provide a voluntary furlough for any employee who is uncomfortable with the virus risk. ET will supplement furlough pay to equal the employee’s full salary during the furlough period.
  • ET applied for a Payroll Protection Plan loan to keep employees paid during the period of deferred project construction dates

Safety planning in response to the constantly changing scope of the coronavirus pandemic has required special considerations and adaptations.  Above and beyond the stringent safety requirements we routinely apply to our jobs, some of the adaptive measures we’ve taken to ensure jobsite safety include:

  • Additional COVID-19 safety signage
  • Continued practice physical distancing of 6’ or more
  • Provision of personal protective equipment (PPE)
  • Hand washing stations and sanitizer dispensers
  • Disinfecting procedures for “high touch” surfaces
  • Eliminating the sharing of tools, phones, desks and other items
  • Restroom protocols to prevent person-to-person virus transmission
  • Staggered shift arrivals to reduce worker density at the jobsite, whenever possible

At ET our top priority has always been to maintain the well-being of our internal and external partners in the communities where we live and work.  That’s why we’ve implemented protective procedures and new personnel policies to help us get through this challenging time. As of this date, ET has not had any reported cases of COVID-19 in any of our offices or on any of our jobsites throughout the country.  Work has progressed and safety measures will remain in place.  When the threat of this virus subsides, we believe that our continuing success will be attributed not only to constructing great projects, but also in the ways we care for each other in the ET family.

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