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Traders say they don’t report cases because there aren’t many. According to communication experts, it is important to consider whether the publication of such information will help protect against rumors or simply generate additional fears.
Rūta Vainienė, the director of the Lithuanian Business Enterprise Association, says that traders now decide for themselves whether to publish and what information to provide about sick employees. The Association does not collect such information from its members.
“This is an internal matter for the company,” he told BNS.
According to R. Vainienė, the National Public Health Center (NVSC) was asked to provide data on the number of infected employees in retail chains, but it was not received.
Only Maxima publishes information daily
The Maxima retail chain is so far the only one that announces the identified cases of COVID-19 on a daily basis. A total of 133 Maxima workers have been diagnosed since the coronavirus pandemic began, 45 of whom have recovered.
According to Ernesta Dapkienė, director of the department of image and network communication, it is safer for customers to know where the disease was registered and what was done.
“Our stores are widespread throughout Lithuania, so it is natural that in a large – 14 thousand people – in the team we partially reflect the epidemiological image of the country. We do not want myths and legends to be created about diseases and possible risks of infection in a store where sick employees worked, ”said a spokeswoman for BNS’s Maxima.
“By informing our customers that a person who got sick worked in one store or another, we tell ourselves what action was taken and why shoppers can rest assured to continue visiting that store,” he said.
Norfa spokeswoman Darius Ryliškis noted that the network does not publish information about infected employees because there are so few cases.
Norfos mažmena retail network, where 3.26 thousand people work. of the population, as of November 12, six workers were ill, 10 were in self-isolation. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 11 workers have been infected with the coronavirus.
Vaida Budrienė, Iki’s communications director, claimed that the coronavirus has been confirmed in 35 employees in Lithuania, 20 of whom are still sick.
“As the statistics of our patients show, the workers do not get infected at work, but in the family. The almost absolute majority of them had contact in the immediate vicinity. When we shop in the store with other people, we do not have prolonged contact ( both on the part of the buyer and the seller), there are also mandatory masks, other security measures, which reduce the risk of infection ”, said V. Budrienė.
“Meanwhile, we communicate openly and transparently everything that creates value for our clients,” he added.
Lina Skersytė, public relations representative of Lidl Lithuania, announced that a total of 15 Lidl employees have been diagnosed with the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic: one in March and the other in recent months.
“When reporting positive cases of coronavirus in the company, we give priority to internal communication,” noted L. Skersytė.
Rimi infected 33 employees, mostly in Vilnius city and district, one of them in the administration. 16 have already recovered and 17 are still receiving treatment at home.
According to Renata Keršienė, communications manager for Rata Lietuvos, the network was the first to publicly announce the first infected employee. Rimi also publicly announced all the cases before the outbreak of the second wave.
“By registering hundreds, and now thousands of cases, in the country every day, we do not communicate individually (…). We immediately inform the team, we establish close contacts, if there are any, “he said.
According to Raimondas Koreiva, director of the Union of Lithuanian Cooperatives, which unites more than 500 stores, there have been only two cases of the disease so far, but now the possibility of infections has increased considerably.
Offers companies to deal independently
According to experts, the publication of this information should be decided by each company after evaluating the possible positive and negative aspects.
Arijus Katauskas, a senior partner at public relations agency Nova Media, believes that some companies publish information about employees with the virus to manage rumors.
On the other hand, he said, revealing such information to some people, especially those who are sensitive or suspicious, could raise additional fears.
“They have a suspicion of the reasons why this information is published, perhaps that some institutions are trying to hide something,” said A. Katauskas.
Therefore, according to him, it is important for companies to ensure that information “does not cause too much panic where it is not needed” before deciding to reveal employee infections.
A. Katauskas also believes that the publication of data on infected employees will not have a positive or negative impact on the company in the long term. According to him, the impact would be only if it became clear that the company concealed the infections, that the spread of the infection was due to its fault, because it did not comply with the rules of self-protection.
According to Rolanda Lingienė, Head of the NVSC Vilnius department, the publication of information about infected employees is a matter of the company’s communication strategy.
“It is not a bag, but a show that the company is open. I see that ad as a bonus. I think companies weigh the benefits and harms of such advertising, ”said R. Lingienė.
At the time, Vytautas Kasiulevičius, a professor of medicine at Vilnius University, believed that one institution, the NVSC, should publish data on the situation in specific companies, even when it considers it important for epidemiological control.
“It just came to our notice then. Communication professionals, physicians, epidemiologists need to sit down and discuss advertising policies. (…) Ads from individual companies show that there is no uniform policy and no one knows how to proceed. . Some look like this, others look different. This is not very good, because people get a distorted image, “said V. Kasiulevičius.
On Saturday, COVID-19 confirmed a total of 33,000. 387 people, 25 thousand. 322 of them are still ill, 7697 have recovered.
Since COVID-19, a total of 266 people have died since the start of the pandemic, and another 102 died from other causes.
It is not allowed to publish, quote or reproduce the information of the BNS news agency in the media and on websites without the written consent of the UAB “BNS”.
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