**Updated as of May 8, 2020**
In early March, as the COVID-19 pandemic started to impact the US, SJE developed and implemented action plans to protect our team members, their families, and their communities across our locations in multiple states. We moved team members to work from home as appropriate, implemented social distancing across all locations, acquired PPE and implemented scheduled sanitizing of work cells and common areas. We entered into an agreement with a national cleaning service to be onsite to sanitize within 24 hours, if needed. We provided all of our team members with daily updates that included FAQs, procedures, and examples of how SJE would handle various situations. We followed guidelines from the CDC, OSHA, local and state health authorities. Our procedures met or exceeded those guidelines.
This week SJE had our first confirmed case in one of our Minnesota locations. We followed our procedures by isolating this individual at home to recover. We identified those team members that had first person exposure and they went home to self-quarantine. They were encouraged to get tested and inform us of those results when available. We immediately closed the appropriate work cells and had our cleaning service onsite to deep clean and sanitize contacted areas. These areas re-opened for production within 24-hours.
We realize that closing a work cell to sanitize after a confirmed case may slow some product shipments to our customers, but we will try to minimize any potential delays.
Thank you for being a valued business partner.
**Updated as of March 25, 2020**
On behalf of the nearly 400 employee owners of SJE, we want to share with you the steps we have taken as a result of the current COVID-19 situation. This is an unprecedented time for us and safety of our employee owners, our communities and our customers is our highest priority.
Because we are a global company with facilities located throughout the United States and in China, we are diligently monitoring this situation through credible sources such as the CDC www.cdc.gov and WHO (www.who.org), as well through state and local authorities.
We are taking extra precautions to protect our employee owners. We are encouraging team members to follow best hygiene practices, like frequent hand washing, social distancing and staying home if they are sick or have been exposed to those who may have the virus. Employees are working remotely if their position allows. We have also put a hold on all business travel until further notice.
While we have always taken the cleanliness of our facilities seriously, we know this is more important than ever. Aligned with the recommended guidelines from health authorities, we are implementing additional measures to clean and disinfect our locations.
SJE has US manufacturing facilities in California, Florida, Minnesota and Ohio. Recently several states, including California, Ohio and Minnesota, announced executive “Shelter-In-Place” or “Stay-Home” orders. These orders provide an exception for qualified Essential Businesses that meet certain criteria and therefore can remain fully operational.
We have received numerous documented requests from our customers across the United States that have been deemed Essential Businesses, asking SJE to continue to supply the products and services they need to support critical water/wastewater infrastructure.
Accordingly, SJE is an essential business and will continue to operate our manufacturing facilities subject to our ongoing monitoring and contingency planning around COVID-19 in accordance with CDC and state and local health guidelines. We are working closely with our suppliers to define our material delivery requirements to meet the needs of our customers.
SJE provides a wide range of technologically advanced solutions and services across North America. We provide control panels, SCADA/remote monitoring, and on-site service to municipalities to support Wastewater Treatment facilities. SJE supports municipalities across the United States that rely on our services and products to maintain critical infrastructure demands.
We manufacture Float Switches, Alarms and Control Systems for residential applications; sump pumps to prevent homes from spring flooding and septic systems to ensure home sewage is processed safely according to city, township, and county regulations. We sell our products across North America through Plumbing Supply wholesalers that sell our products to plumbers and on-site installers.
We supply Embedded Controls to key OEMs that support our first responders and medical device manufacturers that provide the necessary equipment in the testing and developing a vaccine for COVID-19.
This critical situation is very fluid. We are working hard to stay informed and will adhere to all governmental mandates.
