Norwich Public Utilities employees to work remotely; facilities on minimal staffing
Norwich — Starting today, Norwich Public Utilities will ask all nonessential employees to work remotely in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There is no higher priority for NPU than the health and safety of our customers and employees,” Chris LaRose, NPU general manager, said in a news release. “As part of our Business Continuity Plan, we have taken a number of steps to assure that our employees are safe and our customers continue to receive reliable utility services from us.”
NPU has negotiated memorandums of agreement with all three bargaining units governing flexible scheduling and other considerations. Each union is completely committed to doing whatever is necessary to get NPU through these difficult times, utility officials said.
NPU’s Control Room, water treatment plant and wastewater treatment plants will be minimally staffed; enhanced protocols for cleaning the facilities and reducing interactions between staff have been implemented.
There will be no change to or impact on NPU emergency response capabilities. All field personnel are on call to respond to any utility emergency. All response crews are segregated to minimize personal interactions.
The NPU leadership team has been meeting each morning over the past two weeks to review, discuss and plan for all issues that are or could be impacted by the pandemic, with a focus on continuing to meet the needs of customers, NPU said in the release.
Starting next week, NPU’s leadership team will be meeting by phone and web conference each morning, with managers interacting with staff each day by email and phone.
“NPU has a team maintaining communication with our large commercial and industrial customers and will respond to any issues or concerns as we would in ordinary circumstances,” the utility announced.
NPU’s field service technicians are reading meters remotely to avoid entering any customer homes. NPU will continue to process mail and payments and receiving critical deliveries.
Customer service staff can perform all routine duties remotely with no disruption to any service or customer communications, the release said.