Coronavirus News & Updates
COVID-19 in the Workplace

Wednesday, April 1 

Dear valued customer,

We hope that you and your families remain safe and healthy during this trying time.  At Osmose, we are your partner and understand that your communities rely on you to provide safe and reliable energy, especially in a time of crisis.  As we continue to navigate the impacts of COVID-19, we commit to keeping you up-to-date on the ways we are being proactive and protecting our employees.   We also pledge to do our best to maintain open lines of communication with your teams to support the extraordinary measures you have put in place to ensure the continued reliability of the grid.

Our employees continue to work around the country inspecting, maintaining, and restoring distribution and transmission structures.  We are uniquely positioned to continue operations through the COVID-19 outbreak.  Our field operations personnel are already configured as a mobile workforce of small crews that operate remotely.  Our field operations management is primarily mobile and based out of home offices located throughout the country.  Our data delivery personnel, leadership team, and other support personnel are all capable of working remotely from home or virtual offices, and a significant portion are currently doing so to limit opportunities for close person-to-person contact as states put further restrictions in place.   

With so much of the workforce moving online, we are increasing our focus on digital communication and e-learning to promote continued opportunities for learning and engagement by a utility workforce that may remain mobile for some time to come.

Our teams remain open to direct contact through all their usual channels.  We will be regularly reaching out and touching base with you proactively to keep a close watch on changing conditions on your systems, and how we can best continue to support your needs.

It’s an incredibly challenging time for all industries, but certainly no more so than for utilities who are keeping the remote workforce and online economy powered and connected.  We remain committed to our core corporate values of safety, customer focus, and flexibility as we support you in your critical mission.  If you have any questions or concerns, please email osmosecontracts@osmose.com.

Sincerely,

Osmose Utilities Services, Inc.

Friday, March 13 

Dear valued customer,

As you are aware, COVID-19 concerns in the workplace are escalating as the outbreak grows nationally.  Like you, Osmose Utilities Services, Inc. values the health and wellbeing of its employees as a top priority.  Everyone at Osmose has been proactive in adopting best practices in protecting all of our employees from this outbreak.

As you know, Osmose provides electric utility and telecommunication companies with solutions and services to inspect, maintain, and repair their distribution and transmission infrastructure.  In doing so, our work is located outdoors in the public right-of-way and in isolated controlled areas. The crews who perform this work do not travel abroad and use company issued vehicles as their primary mode of transportation to the work area.  Employees who are not local to the work area stay in nearby hotels and return home on weekends as necessary.  Osmose personnel do not perform work inside customer facilities or offices.

Osmose is uniquely positioned to continue operations through the COVID-19 outbreak.  Field operations personnel are already configured as a mobile workforce of small crews that operate remotely.  Field management is primarily mobile and based out of home offices located throughout the country.  Data delivery, leadership, field operations support, and other support teams are based in physical offices but have the capabilities to continue operating remotely from home offices or virtual offices.  Our IT infrastructure is already built to support the entire organization shifting from physical office to remote work place.

Osmose has started working and coordinating with critical vendors who supply personal protective equipment, fleet vehicles, data collection hardware, tools and supplies, preservative treatments, coatings, reinforcement steel and fabricated restoration assemblies to minimize and mitigate supply disruptions.  Where possible, we have increased our order quantities and safety stock levels to address any potential disruptions in our supply chain in the future.

Osmose has not had a confirmed case of an employee infected with COVID-19.  Osmose has sent safety alerts to its field operations and offices for all employees.  The safety alerts reinforce and reference the applicable COVID-19 Coronavirus CDC and OSHA guidelines including the actions set forth in Attachment A.

As you are aware, the situation with the COVID-19 virus remains fluid – we will do all we can to complete your work within the contracted timeframe.  At this time, we are not requesting an extension on work schedules of any work under contract.  We will continue to monitor the situation and communicate with our field operations team.  If conditions in the field change, we will immediately communicate the status of the project to your line of business and sourcing teams.

We appreciate your focus on and attention to preventing the spread of COVID-19. We hope that the steps we take together to prioritize the health and safety of our employees will mitigate the potential impact of COVID-19 on your ability to provide safe and reliable energy.

Very truly yours,

Ron Childress

Chief Executive Officer

Osmose Utilities Services, Inc.