NEW ZEALAND: ‘As an essential service, we’ve had to learn a whole new way of working’, said KiwiRail Group Chief Executive Greg Miller, announcing details of changes made by the national railway to reflect the impact of Covid-19.
‘We have provided additional PPE to our teams in the form of masks, gloves and visors, but more than that, we’ve redesigned our work protocols to reduce risk even further.
‘With our track maintenance teams, keeping people separated is critical to mitigate the risk of person-to-person spread. Team numbers have been reduced, and teams work in “bubbles”, not mixing across different sites. When travelling in vehicles, it’s one in the front seat and one in the back, in order to maximise distance between our people.
‘Our teams are asked about any symptoms before work begins, and pre-work meetings and any other interaction take place with 2 m separation between workers where possible.
‘We also have designated observers on site who are ensuring our teams are maintaining safe working practices in this new environment.
‘We have shared our new processes with the government, because other industries will be able to learn from our experience and implement similar processes when they come back on stream after this period of lockdown.’
