The world leader in water and waste treatment Veolia announced Thursday that it will subject its 50,000 employees in France to screening tests for the new coronavirus to ensure their deconfinement and the "gradual" upturn in activity. "All Veolia employees will benefit" from a PCR test (virological, allowing to say that a patient is infected when it is realized) as well as a serological test (which allows to detect a form of immunity against the new virus thanks to the presence of antibodies), explained the group.
>> READ ALSO - What is the impact of confinement on waste and water consumption?
"This systematic screening campaign is already being deployed in France, a pilot country for the group, where it will be offered to each of the company's 50,000 employees in the country," he said in a press release.
Tests will then be offered to family members of possible contaminated employees, added to Europe 1 the CEO of Veolia, Antoine Frérot, according to whom the company is preparing "for a gradual return to normal". Among the measures planned, a temperature measurement will be "systematically carried out" before access to the buildings, kits with hydroalcoholic gels and masks "in sufficient quantity for the day" will be distributed daily, and the premises and installations will be disinfected regularly, a detailed Veolia.
Division by three of the volume of industrial waste collected
Above all, staggered working hours will be instituted to better distribute the movements of employees in public transport. Besides the 20,000 employees of the group currently working in the field, "10,000 people, who are partially unemployed, will come back gradually" during the deconfinement, explained Antoine Frérot on Europe 1.
To "allow respect ... for barrier gestures", "the flow will undoubtedly be a third of these 10,000 (employees): if it lasts several weeks, there will be a form of rotation so that people can come back and possibly go back to telework, so that each in turn can resume contact with colleagues, work, "said the CEO.
The activities of Veolia, which has suspended its earnings forecasts for 2020, are not affected with the same intensity by economic paralysis. If essential services activities (distribution of drinking water, collection and treatment of municipal waste, heating of dwellings) are little affected, the crisis, on the other hand, weighs heavily on its services to manufacturers and the building industry. Antoine Frérot thus reported on Thursday a division by three of the volume of industrial waste collected.