Durrat Al Khaleej Response to COVID-19
All of us at Durrat Al Khaleej share the global concerns of the public health impact of COVID-19. We continue to monitor the ever-evolving crisis across the country and take the necessary actions to help protect the health and safety of our people, customers and the communities where we operate.
As part of the water bottling industry, Ministry of Health and Environment has determined that our extraordinary employees, who help keep store shelves stocked and deliver water directly to customers, are essential during this unprecedented time. We are grateful for our factory, distribution and retail sales teams who are working around the clock to produce, deliver and stock our water products for people who are counting on us.
Protecting the Health and Safety of Our Employees and Our Customers
Stay Safe
The health and safety of our people, customers and the communities where we operate is of the utmost importance to us. We are following the guidance from local public health experts, World Health Organization (WHO) and have instituted further precautions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, we have:
- Advised all of our employees to continue implementing everyday preventative actions that the local public health recommends, including frequent handwashing for at least 20 seconds and consulting a doctor immediately if they start to exhibit flu-like symptoms.
- Encouraged all employees to practice social distancing as much as possible, and employees who are able to do so to work from home.
- Provided additional hand sanitization stations throughout our facilities
- Increased to 24-hour cleaning for our factories with chlorine- and alcohol-based solutions, which means someone is always onsite cleaning and disinfecting the factory.
- In our factories, we have converted meeting rooms into breakrooms and removed most chairs from each table to enable employees to spread out when eating lunch or taking a break.
- Staggered employee schedules to minimize interaction and have moved time clocks to be 20 feet apart to create social distance.
- Adjusted deliveries of our Ready Refresh beverage delivery service to leave customer orders outside their door and identified a single drop-off location for bulk deliveries at commercial locations so that we can provide necessary water while minimizing unnecessary human contact.
Supporting our Employees in this Challenging Time
As employees rise to the new challenges this crisis brings, we are providing extra support to make sure they are properly taken care of. Here’s how we’re supporting them:
- Providing additional time off without reducing sick or vacation balances if they are impacted by coronavirus.
- Expanded health benefits for telemedicine and prescription delivery, mental health care, childcare, and covering medically necessary testing for COVID-19 at no cost.
- Increased the number of Employee Assistance Program counseling visits during this period of time from 5 to 10 visits, free of charge to employees.
- Continuing to hire, train and support thousands of employees across our business.
Giving Back to the Communities Where We Operate
In addition to delivering our bottled water products to customers throughout the country, we are also identifying ways to give back to the communities where we operate. For detailed information on how we are helping those in need during these challenging times, please contact Durrat Al Khaleej
Helping to Ensure Product Safety
Durrat Al Khaleej applies very strict hygiene measures in our factory. As part of our standard operating procedure, Durrat Al Khaleej factory employees already wear gloves and wash their hands before starting their shifts. In response to COVID-19, we are supplying employees with masks, we have increased the frequency of our factory-wide cleaning with chlorine- and alcohol-based solutions and have provided additional hand sanitization stations throughout our factories.