OUR EMPLOYEE-FOCUSED POLICIES

TCP Group’s “Proactive, Vaccinated, Supercharged” Project Contributes to the Country’s Herd Immunity.

TCP Group set the target of 70% vaccination rate among its over 5,000 employees throughout the country in order to help build the herd immunity. “Proactive, Vaccinated, Supercharged” project communicates to the employees the importance of vaccination, increases understanding and develops awareness of the vaccine through the publicized videos and infographics continually. Moreover, the employees have been granted extra off days, apart from their normal leave quota, to get themselves and/or their families vaccinated. And if they experience any side effects afterwards, they can also take additional days off to recover.

Furthermore, through Chulabhorn Royal Academy, TCP Group procured Sinopharm vaccine for its both permanent employees and contract workers who could not access the government provided vaccines. As a result, 4,916 of TCP Group’s employees, amounting to 95%, have been vaccinated. It shows the organization's determination to contribute to developing herd immunity against COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

Having reached the target number of vaccinated employees, TCP Group then provided over 4,000 doses of Moderna, an alternative mRNA vaccine, to its employees as a booster in order to constantly prevent severe symptoms in case of infection.

COVID-19 Screening to Prevent Workplace Outbreak.

By mid-2021, COVID-19 pandemic situation reached its worst. COVID-19 screening process had to be tightened up accordingly. The following 4 measures were employed to control and inhibit outbreak in the company:

• Conducting RT-PCR tests 100% complying with the universal standard recommended by World Health Organization to check RNA genetic code of the virus.
• Distributing Panbio COVID-19 antigen self-tests approved by Food and Drug Administration Thailand (Thai FDA) to the employees to perform tests on themselves and their families at home.
• Administering pooled sample testing to identify COVID-19 cases.

Even though the pandemic situation has improved, the company still provides antigen self-test kits to its employees to perform on themselves before entering the office on each day. Additional policy for entering the premises has been issued such as registering each person’s name in advance to control the number of people concurrently in the office and to decongest the working area. Without such a registration, they would not be allowed to enter the workplace.

Manage the Company’s Manufacturing Area, Both Passively and Proactively, to Stay Free of COVID-19

In terms of health and safety policy, Prachinburi factory under TCP Group has put in place a plan to deal with COVID-19 situation in order to make sure that this pandemic will not affect health and sanitation of its employees working in the production lines. This is also an attempt to ensure  quality products can be delivered to the domestic and international consumers, without interruption.

However, when there was an upsurge, Prachinburi factory proactively implemented “bubble & seal” measure, a guideline to control COVID-19 outbreak in big industrial factories with at least 500 employees, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus further within the factory and to the adjacent communities. The guideline included the following:

• For the employees living in the community: Providing shuttle vehicles to pick up the employees from their dorms and using a tracking system between the residence and the workplace while conducting a random test according to a pre-determined schedule. In case of infection, COVID-19 patients would be transported to the medical facility immediately.
• For employees living on the premises: Providing all the necessary utilities to the employees; taking a good care of their living condition including dividing the living areas into bedroom, dining room, bathroom and infirmary; catering 3 meals a day; creating a registration system; locating the employees’ accommodation; installing free Wi-Fi internet system; etc.

Providing Comprehensive Care to COVID-19 Infected Employees.

At the height of the pandemic in the middle of 2021, the number of new domestic cases spiked in July and August. The government then declared  a lockdown to bring down the infection rates. Due to the severity of the situation, the number of infected employees also increased. TCP Group actively rolled out a policy for human resources department and other related departments to expedite the process of admitting the sick employees to the hospitals.

For those who had mild symptoms but were unable to quarantine themselves at home, the company arranged the quarantine facilities both at the headquarter and the Prachinburi factory to care for them and to reduce the chance of viral transmission to their family members. The quarantine facilities were set up according to the standard of Ministry of Public Health, equipped with CCTV for monitoring the patients. Real-time medical checkup by medical personnel through VDO conference, known as Telemedicine, was also provided to ensure the good and safest care to the infected employees.

In early December 2021, World Health Organization (WHO) reported a new variant of COVID-19 that started to spread widely across South Africa and Europe. The company prepared a contingent plan to handle the situation in case of an upsurge. A stricter screening policy required the employees to run antigen self-test more frequently, from once every 14 days to twice per week, starting from the New Year holidays, in order to nip the possibility of an outbreak in the bud, both at the headquarter and the factory.

Job security for all employees is top priority.

TCP Group won’t dismiss employees while also contributing to the society.