Businesses in the region should look out for each other in terms of adhering to guidelines in order to avoid a lockdown in the western region, the CEO of Galway Chamber has said.
In a statement to members and to the wider business community, Kenny Deery said that such a collective caring will protect all the communities.
"Last week I participated on an emergency Chambers Ireland CEO forum call, its focus was on the human and economic impact of the restrictions imposed on Counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly.
"More worryingly, the fear for further restrictions being imposed across other counties based on further suspected clusters, outside of these county boundaries, some not far from us in Galway," he said.
"Irrespective of how difficult things are at present, we do not want to see additional restrictions being applied to Galway, or indeed the western region. What we are learning from the Kildare cases, is while some workplaces took measures very seriously, it was the living and home sharing and accommodation arrangements of employees that have contributed considerably to the cluster outbreaks.
"Also, workplaces not acting in time to shut operations down when the need arose, has not helped the overall case numbers either. Some employees continued to work while experiencing symptoms, because of fear and for economic reasons," added Mr Deery.
"While many of you and your employees have gone to extreme measures to follow procedures and do everything right, I am calling on you to review processes.
Employees are entitled to their privacy in terms of their home sharing arrangements, however through your internal communications and employee engagement please do lean in on the importance of them understanding their chain of contacts, and depending on the roles of those sharing their home, unwittingly they could be exposing their colleagues health, their customers health and their company’s vulnerability to this dreadful disease.
This is not about blame; this is about us taking collective responsibility to follow procedures and to try and protect our communities. So the key message from us as a Chamber is;
STEP BACK; Re-double your efforts as a company to ensure you are adhering to the guidelines. Don’t relax, don’t cut corners, review your policies, your PPE stocks and your own procedures.
STEP UP; Having now operated for a while under the guidelines set out, you may have seen better ways to ensure compliance, or perhaps have implemented practical solutions that have worked for you and may benefit others.
STEP IN; If you are aware of another business who is finding it difficult to maintain compliance with the guidelines, step in to support them. There is no blame, we are all learning how to cope with this new way of operating our businesses.
Our role as a Chamber is to lobby, to champion and to try and protect businesses through this exceptional time. This is not about one sector, one geographic territory or business size. This is about the collective, our doors are open and our phone lines are live, so please reach out if you need support or further guidance," he concluded.
