CityNews – Danish jeweller Georg Jensen, which has a factory here in Chiang Mai, has purchased 600 N-95 masks, one for each employee. After discount, masks cost 28 baht each, an investment of 16,800 baht.
“The prompt for action came when I was walking my dog Stanley at 6am last week on the day when Chiang Mai became #1 on the AQI,” said Mark Robinson, Managing Director of Georg Jensen Thailand.
“My eyes were burning after only walking the dog for 30 mins. Also, the same morning, whilst driving in my car to the office, I passed several songtaews filled with staff who were travelling to the office in Sankampaeng from places such as Doi Lor, Sanpatong. This approximately 60 minute journey, I realised, was exposing them to doses of daily air pollution. About 150 of our employees travelled these routes to work each day and most of our 600 employees take songtaews or motorbikes to and from work.”
Robinson said that Georg Jensen ordered the particulate respirators (Model 3M # 8210) from supplier Chiang Mai Delta and provided masks, free of charge, for all 600 employees.
According to Robinson, Georg Jensen has many initiatives throughout the year that are centred around staff welfare, such as annual health screening, monthly health education sessions by on site nurse, providing scholarships to employees kids etc. “This is just another way of showing that the company takes an interest and more importantly cares about its employees.”