Grangemouth owner Ineos takes action to protect staff from coronavirus

Ineos, the industrial giant that runs the vast petrochemical complex at Grangemouth, is to enact a series of “social distancing” measures to protect staff amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe said the firm’s immediate priorities were “to keep our people safe and to keep our plants and businesses running”.

Notingthatthecompanywas “a manufacturer of essential materials that are vital to life”, Ineos said that all office-based staff would work from home unless in exceptional circumstances.

All employees are to maintain a “one-meter rule” within offices or plants and zero contact alongside the “rigorous use” of hand-gels and surface cleaning.

Meanwhile, the firm, which employs hundreds of people in Scotland, is to restrict visits to plants and offices, postpone non-essential work on plants and cancel group events.

Ratcliffe said: “We take our responsibility as a global manufacturer of essential products to every-day life very seriously, with health and safety our top priority. As a result of the rapidly evolving Covid-19 pandemic we are taking all necessary steps to ensure that we keep our people safe and keep our plants and our businesses running.

“This includes changes to working patterns for our staff globally, a ban on all nonessential travel, changes to our site cleaning regimes, the postponement of non-essential work at sites and the cancellation or postponement of all events involving groups. These mandatory rules will all be in effect from Monday, 16 March.

“We will continue to review the situation.”

The company has 34 business divisions with a production network spanning 171 manufacturing facilities in 24 countries.