SIA “Troja” has been forced to temporarily suspend operations at its Riga factory at Bauskas Street 143 starting from today, February 11, until further notice. The decision was made following the results of the collective testing of 72 employees conducted on February 10, where 39 cases were confirmed to be positive for COVID-19.
Currently, the contact persons of the infected employees are being identified, the entire facility is being disinfected, and further collective testing of the remaining factory employees is being organized. "The decision to possibly resume production at least partially in Riga will most likely not be made until the end of the week – as soon as we are certain that the health of the other colleagues is not at risk and we are able to ensure a safe working environment. At the same time, we are trying to reorganize production to minimize the impact on delivery times for our customers," says Aldis Links, Production Director of SIA "Troja." It is noted that SIA “Troja’s” factory in Saulkalne continues operations as all COVID-19 tests there have been negative. In total, SIA “Troja” employs 165 people, of whom 33 work in Saulkalne.
The decision to conduct COVID-19 testing for the two production shifts and office employees at the Riga factory was made immediately after three employees in a short time period were diagnosed with the virus. "This is already the third time that collective testing has been conducted during the pandemic, but previously no further spread of the virus among employees was found. So far, all infected colleagues are doing well, and most are asymptomatic," explains Ludmila Jonaste, Head of Personnel at SIA “Troja.”
Like other entities of the “Latvijas Finieris” group, reducing the risk of disease spread has been one of the key priorities for SIA “Troja” since the first days of the pandemic. "We have tried to reduce the need for contact between people as much as possible in production. Working hours have been adjusted so that employees from different shifts do not meet each other. In addition, each shift has its own changing rooms. Even within a single shift, there are different break times. Of course, depending on the technological processes, employees often have to work shoulder to shoulder, so wearing mouth and nose coverings is mandatory," explains Aldis Links. "Obviously, this was not enough. We will analyze the situation, draw conclusions, and do everything to improve epidemiological safety in the workplace moving forward."
Unfortunately, as the spread of the virus in Latvia has not significantly decreased, the number of COVID-19 cases has also risen in other entities of the "Latvijas Finieris" group, says the CEO of the company, Jānis Ciems: "The reasons are mostly related to violations of safety regulations. It seems that both in society and in the company, people are tired, starting to relax, and act recklessly. As a result, it is not ruled out that the situation could worsen in other factories of the group. However, no one knows the impact the virus will have on our health and that of others. Restrictions are in place to prevent further spread of the virus. We must never forget that careless actions can have tragic consequences. Therefore, I urge every “Latvijas Finieris” colleague and every member of the public to act responsibly, increase caution, and use publicly available information to register for COVID-19 vaccinations."
AS "Latvijas Finieris" Public Relations Specialist Pauls Beķeris.
