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News & Culture

COVID-19: Coronavirus and the workplace

Below is a condensed version COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS AND THE WORKPLACE SAFETY POLICY. As information about COVID-19 develops, WorkSafeBC continues to monitor the progression of the virus and we will refer to the guidance of public health officials. WorkSafeBC is advising employers and workers to follow the recommended personal hygiene practices like frequent hand washing, avoiding touching your face, and avoiding direct contact with others, which includes both 505-Junk colleagues and clients. As an essential service, the 505-Junk management team has been directly in touch with WCB to ensure we have been exceeding required procedures since March, 2020.

Respiratory protection

Each of our Truck Team Drivers are required to wear fabric or N95 masks at all times. For some construction sites, our truck team members are equipped with multi-purpose respirator masks for jobs that contain heavy dust, drywall, and hoarding scenarios.

Hand hygiene

Our truck team members are equipped and trained to wear gloves at all job sites. All trucks are equipped with hand washing stations including 20 litre jugs soap, and paper towel in all trucks. We refer to hand hygiene as hand washing with soap and water or hand sanitizing with alcoholic solutions, gels or tissues to maintain clean hands and fingernails. Touching one’s eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands should be avoided. 

Social distancing

Social distancing measures are approaches taken to minimize close contact with others in the community. In our line of work, this will include: 

  • Avoiding shaking hands with clients, suppliers, and colleagues.
  • Temperature-checking truck team employees at the start of every shift.
  • Encouraging construction sites and residential clients to stagger trades throughout the day and avoid clusters of people.
  • Encouraging clients to leave material outside when possible.
  • Cancelling all corporate travel.
  • Encouraging estimates to be done over the phone or by email using video and photo.
  • Ensuring there are sufficient cleaning supplies in trucks and offices, which are to be wiped down after interaction with people.
  • Enforcing mandatory policy for employees to stay home when showing any symptoms of sickness.
  • Requiring employees not to share drinks or other personal items. 
  • Screening all clients prior to booking into the schedule (see below).

Sales centre screening procedures

Please be aware that we are addressing COVID-19 by taking preventable measures in keeping our employees and clients safe. This includes:

  • Staying in touch with our commercial clients to share our updated policies and learn about their own.
  • Having our Sales Centre team implement additional screening questions derived from public health authorities, including:
    • Have you travelled internationally in the past 14 days?
    • Are you monitoring any respiratory illness symptoms such as fever, cough or difficulty breathing?
    • Are you currently in self-isolation? 

Moving forward

We encourage you to call us at 604-505-5865 if you have any questions or concerns regarding your pick up or account. We are continuing to service our clients with added caution on top of our regular safety policies and procedures. 

Thank you for your interest in our preventative safety measures regarding COVID-19: Coronavirus and the workplace policy.