Neucel is committed to providing a safe work environment for its employees. We believe that the use of alcohol or illegal drugs can have serious adverse effects on the safety of the Company's operations. The Company will expect its employees to report for work fit for duty and to perform their duties in a safe and lawful manner. The drug test conducted by the Company as part of its pre-employment screening process is intended to identify potential problems before they are able to impact the workplace.

We want to ensure that employees have the physical and mental capabilities to perform the work that is required of them. If an employee is not medically fit to perform his or her duties, this creates an increased risk to the safety of that employee and others in the workforce and an adverse impact on the efficiency and productivity of the business. 

The medical examination will be performed by health care professionals engaged by Neucel, and the drug testing procedures will be carried out by persons with knowledge about the collection and testing of urine samples. The examination and procedure will be carried out in a manner that is respectful of the candidate’s personal privacy while still allowing the Company to obtain information to assist in the recruiting process.

The privacy of the information will be protected, and the information will not be shared or disclosed to persons not involved in the decision as to whether to hire a candidate.

A Fair Workplace

Over the past months, we have emphasized the principle of Merit-Based employment as negotiated in our labour Memorandum of Agreement ratified last December by the membership. Article XVIII Section 1 reads "In cases of promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff and recall of an employee, the primary considerations shall be the employee's qualifications, ability to perform the work and seniority. Where competing employee's have equal qualifications and ability to perform the work, only then will the principle of seniority be used to determine which employee shall obtain the promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff or recall." The Section goes on to say that "the determination as to the employee's qualifications and ability will be solely in the discretion of the employer."

A further approach to a fair workplace will be the introduction of handscanners. This technology uses handprints rather than a card or badge to record hours of work.

With this technology, your hand is your badge. Nobody can tamper with your hours of work and there are no administrative hassles or cost. This technology provides the most accurate time and attendance solution available and avoids any problems with payroll or inaccuracies on your paycheque. It also saves us significant clerical, accounting, and fraud costs as well as Supervisors' time.

And, more importantly, in a bonus pool situation, those that earned it will get it.

Biometric handscanning isn't new. It's currently used by businesses and agencies including construction companies, school districts, hospitals, banks and credit unions, international seaports, golf clubs and airports.

A Secure Workplace

To meet our mandatory insurance provisions, new Transport Canada regulations aimed at increasing port security, and to provide perimeter security and safety, Neucel will be installing security cameras throughout the plant. We are currently engaging a security consultant to ensure that we meet all of these provisions in order to avoid any production delays.

Although we will conform to all regulations that require cameras, we are very aware of the unease that cameras may cause in an employment situation where they haven’t been used before.  We’ve looked at some of the employee reaction to security cameras as they become prevalent at other plants, mills, businesses, ATM’s, public transit, taxis and other work environments.

Two main conclusions from that past experience guide us in our implementation of security cameras.  First, employees will know when the camera system goes live and the areas where the cameras are going to be located. There will not be secrecy about the range and scope of the system and when it initiates.   Second, our internal security system is there to ensure that we meet our regulatory environment and that both the company and employees meet their respective obligations contained in our labour agreement. 

No more and no less.

Our intent is that this kind of security system backs up our principles of workplace fairness, equal treatment, job security and safety while ensuring we meet the regulatory provisions mandated by our insurers and levels of government.