Nft Takes Measures To Protect Its Employees While Ensuring Business Continuity

NFT has shown that they are committed to customers, employees and communities. The biggest challenges faced by companies during the COVID-19 crisis is ensuring business continuity while ensuring, with equal weight, the safety of its employees.

NFT's QHSE department has been monitoring with full devotion the developments around the COVID-19 pandemic and strictly NFT is implementing all the recommendations from trusted sources who are experts in the field, such as Department of Health in the UAE, World Health Organization (WHO), or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

By default, NFT's occupational activities are relatively safe and in line with provisions taken to combat spread of COVID19. They work with steel structures in open spaces that are exposed to the sun and high heat, which makes it resistant to the spreading of the viru. However, the exposure remains with the human element outside those activities such as commuting to work and within each employee’s personal life.

First step in facing any hazard is to conduct risk assessments and act according to the scientific recommendations to tackle the hazards. From the very early stages, NFT has set up Crises Management Committee formed from out top management, QHSE, Administration, Operations, and HR departments. The job of this committee is to follow up on the current situation, development of COVID-19, contact with UAE officials, contact with our sister companies overseas, and come up with measures in line with the official recommendations.

The second step was for NFT to conduct awareness sessions and NFT ran more than 15 dissemination and educational sessions about the virus and methods to control its spread to different groups in all employee languages. They made sure that the sessions were tailored to each vocation. Special attention sessions and trainings were conducted with sanitation people, drivers, or the more vulnerable groups who can be more exposed as per our risk assessment surveys. In addition, flyers, posters, videos, and publications were circulated wherever possible inside the offices, workshop, vehicles, and even labor camps dormitories.

NFT adjusted the modus operandi and adopted several work procedures according to International Recommendations and mitigation measures mandated by the UAE Government, starting with vehicles. The highest risk of transmission occurs while commuting to work or living in labor camps that have high concentration of people.

Commuting to work according to the UAE authorities’ directives, follows 30% occupancy in the vehicles. Effectively it means, NFT tripled bus trips to labor camps and increased fleet of small vehicles and minibuses. In addition, they added separate plastic sheet inside the bus in order to separate the driver from the passengers. Each vehicle carrying more than the driver, is disinfected at least twice a day or as necessary.

The labor camps posed as a threat to the spread of the pandemic. However, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the health authorities in the UAE, NFT managed to screen all working force and implement extra precautions in collaboration of labor camps management.

On site and at the workshop, all teams were divided into segregated groups that work in isolation from each other. The QHSE team are closely monitoring all laborers in workshop by testing their temperature and ensuring they are wearing full PPE.

In parallel, the same measures were conducted to maintain social distancing in the head office, when possible the employees could carry out their jobs without the need to come to office. In case coming to office is essential, we restructured the office distribution as to maintain necessary social distancing as recommended. An infrared gun thermometer was placed at the reception for all those entering to voluntarily check their temperatures. A special team is deployed for disinfecting all surfaces, office appliances, doorknobs, handles, restroom facilities, round the clock during working hours..