As soon as the Coronavirus affected China and Europe, Areti Charidemou & Associates LLC developed policies and procedures to protect its employees, clients and minimize business disruptions. Today, we have scaled-up our measures and we are proud of remaining both safe and fully operational.

Travel policies

Cancelling all business trips was one of the first measures the Company applied in February planning to rescheduled trips in a later time or schedule e-meetings instead. We also strongly encouraged all employees to wisely think about personal traveling and carefully avoid it as much as possible.

Any employee who returned to Cyprus from countries with Covid-19 travel warning was asked to inform the Company and remain in self-isolation for at least 14 days. Any employee who returned to Cyprus from abroad should also had to inform the Human Resources Department.

"All sections of our society – including businesses and employers – must play a role if we are to stop the spread of this disease." – World Health Organization

Later when Covid-19 arrived in Cyprus we advised and allowed to our employees who live outside Limassol to work from home to avoid traveling between cities.

Building Entry Protocol

The main entrance of the building and our Reception will remain closed for visitors, clients but also for employees who are working in different buildings. Any internal or external mail should be left outside the building.

When the pandemic outbreak happened in Cyprus we asked all our people to pass from the temperature-check before entering the building in order to measure their temperature. The Company covered the expenses for Covid-19 testing for our employees who experienced common flue symptoms or had low fever temperature.

We have also limited the traffic between the three floors of the main building asking for our employees to hold e-meetings and any paperwork they need to exchange do so using the elevator's internal-mail tray.

Workplace Hygiene

We hold an aggressive approach to prevent the spread of the infection in our workplace by increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning. The offices are equipped with dispensers of alcohol-based hand rub, with protective facemasks and with disinfectants to clean surfaces and workstations regularly.

Official directives on how to prevent the spread were communicated to our staff and were strictly implemented by our office cleaning service.

We also held a decontamination in all our Group of Companies' buildings by qualified professionals to eliminate the chances of the virus transmission.

Personnel Working Inhouse or Teleworking

Employees who are well and are not on a Special Leave for Parents, a Special Sick Leave or traveled recently, are expected to attend at work or telework.

Most of our employees have now shifted to remote working, some of them on a permanent basis and some on a rotation basis. This helps the Company sustain the physical distancing directives, reduce exposure of our employees who are still working inhouse and comply with the government's directives.

Under non-emergency circumstances, engaging in substantial not work-related activities is not permitted when teleworking. Now, however, the Company realizes that closed schools and children's care arrangements may mean that employees must balance family responsibilities with work tasks at the same time.

Our Corporate Social Responsibility Response

As COVID-19 impact increases, our community, affected families and health care staff are coming in to focus. We tried to develop relief efforts through our Corporate Social Responsibility Program as we feel this as our moral obligation.

The Company immediately responded to our hospitals donation request by offering €10.000 to cover protective equipment expenses for our National Health Care medical staff. Our affiliated company, Imade 3D, is participating in an in-kind donation effort by 3D-printing protective shield masks which will be sent to private or public hospitals of our country.

Amid the Coronavirus spread we tried to reduce the negative impact of the pandemic by donating, through local foundations, over €5.000 for the Easter to families of our community that suffer the economic effects of this crisis.

Since the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic cannot be fully foreseen, this and other policies will be revisited regularly in order to keep everyone safe and we will continue looking for ways to support our community. The situation remains uncertain, but we still remain operational, active and positive that together we will get through this stressful situation.

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