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40 ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE REPORT 2020 ENSURING HEALTH AND SAFETY 41

To ensure our employees can enjoy a friendly, Preventive Measures measures to minimise the risk of infection included special
Enhancing Employee Wellbeing
supportive and stress-free work environment, arrangements for service staff visiting customer premises
We understand that the wellbeing of our employees, we provide free clinical medical services, fitness At Towngas premises, including corporate offices and gas in buildings with confirmed cases and guidelines advising
including their physical and mental health, is essential facilities and a mother care room in our North Point production plants, automatic body temperature scanners technicians to wear advanced PPE when providing services
for maintaining a happy and productive workforce. headquarters. In 2020, we replaced face-to-face were set up in order to detect potential cases of infection. at customers’ premises. Health seminars and educational
activities with online programmes, including home We also applied and distributed nano photocatalytic activities related to COVID-19 were also organised.
fitness classes with yoga and Pilates, cooking classes, long-acting disinfectant spray in our workplaces and
health tips and health talks by medical practitioners. high traffic areas, and developed our own ultraviolet-C Customer Protection
We also shouldered the cost of seasonal influenza disinfection device to sanitise areas such as conference
vaccinations for our staff. rooms and elevators. In many areas, we adjusted the floor While implementing measures to safeguard the health of our
layout, erected partitions to reduce face-to-face contact customers and staff, we continued to provide high quality
Unlike in past years, fewer activities for our staff and increase social distancing, and set up disinfection customer service in 2020. All Towngas Customer Centres
and their families were held in 2020 because of the stations. The fresh air flow rate of our headquarters in remained open and were treated with a nano photocatalytic
COVID-19 pandemic. These activities, which are North Point was also adjusted to maximum level. To avoid long-acting disinfectant spray. Although our maintenance and
designed to promote work-life balance and build team overcrowding, we implemented crowd control measures for checking services remained unchanged, we had to temporarily
spirit, will resume when COVID-19 subsides. our lifts and lift lobbies. Additionally, Quick Response (QR) suspend our on-site meter reading service and regular safety
codes were placed in meeting rooms to encourage staff to inspections (RSIs) during part of the year. Staff delivering
record their presence for contact tracing purposes. necessary on-site service were equipped with masks and
protective goggles,
Case Study
Protective Supplies and provided with
gloves and shoe
Safety during the COVID-19 pandemic We set up a Protective Equipment Procurement Response covers for use when
Team for sourcing sufficient stock of PPE supplies (e.g. necessary. Staff
Soon after the first appearance of the novel coronavirus surgical masks, hand sanitisers and face shields) for members were also
in December 2019, Towngas took immediate steps to our staff and contractors, and closely monitored existing required to clean
minimise the risk of infection among our staff, contractors, stocks to ensure a stable supply. their hands with an
customers and business partners. alcohol-based hand-
Care for Employees rub before and after
We also activated our Corporate Preparedness Plan for maintenance work.
Infectious Diseases and set up a taskforce to coordinate Flexible working hours, as well as team splitting and work-
our response. Top management held regular meetings from-home arrangements, were introduced to reinforce
to facilitate decision making and ensure the timely social distancing. All face-to-face contact by our staff on
implementation of COVID-19 measures. different shift operations was eliminated and virtual meetings
Given the rapid changes in the COVID-19 situation, we with internal and external parties were encouraged. Other
Our safety measures included the following: provided to our staff up-to-date information on the latest
pandemic developments and corresponding government
Effective Communication legislation, as well as infection control information through
various channels. These included the corporate intranet,
We issued new policies and guidelines that included Home webinars, posters, videos, emails, mobile text messages
Quarantine and COVID-19 Testing Requirements, Special and screensavers. Beyond this, we set up a 24-hour HSE
Work Arrangement, Health Declaration, Face Mask Wearing, hotline for staff to report or inquire about COVID-19 issues
and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) guidelines. All and developed a smartphone app for consolidating and
were designed to provide clear guidance on actions to be delivering information on the pandemic.
taken to minimise the risk of infection.