York Region Public Health to ‘continue to monitor' Vaughan plant after 10 COVID-19 cases

The company is said to have ‘voluntarily closed on May 22, 2020 until May 27, 2020 for deep cleaning,’ but some employees are expressing grievances

Yorkregion.com
June 5, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

York Region Public Health said on June 2 it will "continue to monitor” a Vaughan plant for 14 days after 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

On May 29, York Region Media reported how Vision Profile Extrusion was taking all the “necessary steps and guidelines” following an anonymous news tip saying that up to eight employees had COVID-19 and the plant was telling workers to continue reporting to work.

Vision’s products and services include columns, decking, fencing, railings, patio doors, steel doors, basement windows, custom profiles and transportation.

However, on May 31, York Region Media received another email from a Vision Profile employee with a letter attached, saying this is on the “behalf of my coworkers about our company.”

In the email the source, who wishes to stay anonymous, said both the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Premier Doug Ford “must take note of this company.”

To understand what’s happening, York Region Media contacted both Vision Profile and York Region Public Health.

York Region Public Health confirmed that they are aware of COVID-19-related incidents at the Vaughan company.

“York Region Public Health is aware of and investigating a cluster of COVID-19 cases at Vision Profile, located in the City of Vaughan,” said Patrick Casey, director of corporate communications for York Region Public Health.

Casey added that York Region Public Health had also “conducted an inspection on June 1, 2020 to assess and recommend infection prevention and control measures.”

“The work site has also been referred to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, which is standard practice when there are clusters of workplace-related illnesses, like COVID-19,” Casey added.

So far, Casey said, York Region Public Health is “unable to comment on operational aspects of this organization's business.”

“We would recommend that any individual who works at Vision Profile and wants to get tested visit one of the three COVID-19 assessment centres in York Region,” he added.

Casey said the company “voluntarily closed on May 22, 2020 until May 27, 2020 for deep cleaning and reopened with limited staff; all staff have been advised to go for testing at a COVID-19 assessment centre.”

Source’s claims

The source expressed some grievances, including the lack of testing enforcement, especially for those who worked in the office section of the company.

"We (haven't had) a drop of sanitizer in our dispensers for almost a year,” the source added. “We have bottles of sanitizer for office people, but not the people on the production floor.”

The dichotomy in the treatment of the company's workers becomes more apparent as, the source said, “The office people hide upstairs, lock the workers out, (even to) go see HR or reception. It's like they think closing a door will stop the virus.”

In addition, "We were shut down to get tested and had to use vacation time to be (at) home. The company didn't even pay us out of their pocket like they (were) supposed to."

The source, meanwhile, said that employees “first heard” about the first case on May 20 at around 5 p.m., adding that they were told to “keep it quiet until we heard more about it.”

“The next morning, we had one new case. We were getting employees to spray the areas down and (told) to keep working unless you felt that you wanted to leave to get tested, but (to) come back to work.”

Vision Profile’s reply

York Region Media also forwarded the source’s claims to Vision Profile and received a written letter from Mark DiVito, partner and general manager.

DiVito explained how the company, on May 22, “voluntarily shut down production operations for the Memorial Day weekend as the majority of our customers are U.S.-based.”

He added, “At that point we had just learned of a confirmed positive COVID-19 case. We followed all protocols and we notified staff and our colleagues within the Vision Group.”

The manager explained that the company “didn't have an opportunity to shut down for Victoria Day weekend (May 18),” and that “all production staff had to provide evidence of a negative test result prior to (their) return to work.”

“We asked for all production staff to be tested prior to returning to work for the safety of everyone and in line with the provincial government's guidance to increase testing,” he added.

"As of today, June 2, 2020, we have test results from all production staff except for two employees for (whom) results are still pending, and they will return to work pending the outcome of their test."

He dubbed the process of getting people tested for COVID-19 as “successful” for everyone working on the factory floor.

"As a company, everyone working here should be proud of this quick call to action and their rapid compliance."

Public health "satisfied" with personal protective equipment (PPE)

DiVito described how masks and gloves were “made available to all production staff daily” and that they were “required to use masks and gloves all the time while in the plant.”

With PPE being “equally available to everyone” in the company, DiVito said, “we are making available all the hand sanitizer that we can acquire from several supply sources.”

“We have been in constant communication with public health and they are satisfied we have the proper PPE, policies and procedure in place and in use.”

“In fact, their last update visit was yesterday, June 1, 2020, and they confirmed we have the appropriate policy and procedure in place, as we have had since the outset of this pandemic.”

On office versus production employees

Asked about the difference between office versus production employees, DiVito explained how the company has “strict protocols in place for the safety of all workers through the company.”

“This includes compartmentalization of departments so that we further (mitigate) any risks of potential virus spread among departments,” he said, adding that this “policy is in effect for every department.”

“All departments interact by phone or electronic means and, (when) in person, in special designated common areas while maintaining physical distancing protocols.”

In addition to sanitizing the building last week, there is a sanitation program taking place on a daily basis.

He also said, "Workers are encouraged to speak with supervisors about issues they have any concerns about. That has been the standard from Day 1."

However, for vacation time, DiVito didn't quite address the anonymous employee's claim when he said, "All employees are free to decide if and when they will return to work. Any employees that are ill are subject to the terms of our benefits program, available to all Vision Group employees."