Service station serious about protecting staff
IF just one member of the small team at Challenge Fitzroy service station gets sick, the petrol station closes.
So, the team of four fulltime workers, performing an essential service under the Covid19 Alert Level 4 lockdown, are taking their health and safety seriously.
The staff pump the petrol, a rigorous disinfecting routine is in place, crosses on the floor indicate a safe distance when lining up to pay for fuel, and on Tuesday a perspex screen was installed to create a barrier between staff and customers at the counter, allowing them to remove the 2m rule of physical distancing.
Owner Sheryl Mathieson said she was expecting a ‘‘major dent’’ — about a 90% hit — to the business’ trade as it negotiated the new rules brought on as part of the Government’s response to Covid19.
However, they were all committed, and she did not want to risk the health of her and her husband Tony’s two fulltime staff.
‘‘They both have to be so careful, because they don’t want to be taking it home,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s more the workers — for the essential workers — they’ve got partners at home that are quite concerned that from working here they’re going to take it back.
‘‘Our wee ‘bubble’ is our staff and our homes. They talk about bubbles and mixing bubbles — we’ve got a wee few mixes.
‘‘That’s what makes it imperative that we all tick every box. If one of us gets it, we’ve got to close.
‘‘Except for the workshop, there’s not one staff member that can take a whole week off. If one of us gets it, we’ve got to close. That’ll hurt. Not just us, but our customers.’’
Workshop staff at the service station remained oncall and in the workshop, too, new extreme measures were in place for the duration of the lockdown.
The changes were not all bad — the perspex screen, she said, was likely to remain.