EACOM Timber Corporation, the largest sawmill company in Northern Ontario, is paying its employees to get COVID-19 vaccines.
The company has sawmills in Nairn Centre, Elk Lake, Gogama, Ear Falls, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins. It also has three mills in Quebec.
The company announced what it calls an incentive program Thursday to encourage its employees and contractors to get vaccinated.
“With employee safety top of mind, the company hopes to achieve an 85 per cent vaccination rate among the staff at its nine sawmills and two secondary manufacturing facilities across Quebec and Ontario,” said a company news release.
EACOM said the program is confidential and is retroactive to December 2020. The company will provide $200 for employees who get the first dose, and then an additional $150 for the second dose. Anyone who chooses the single-dose Jannsen vaccine will get $350.
EACOM president and CEO Kevin Edgson said worker safety was one of the reasons for the incentive. He said community safety was also a reason.
“We are committed to offering safe working environments for all members of our staff and business partners, as well as contributing to vaccination efforts in our communities,” said Edgson.
“As a leadership team, we felt it was our duty to achieve a high target vaccination level at our facilities and that offering a cash incentive, in a confidential and equitable manner, would be a good option. We are pleased with the results thus far and appreciate everything our employees are doing to help us get back to normal as safely, and quickly, as possible.”
EACOM said it has made the program retroactive so that employees and contractors who received the vaccine early on can still receive the incentive.
Also, those who cannot receive the vaccine for medical reasons can still apply to receive the bonus and so can new employees, even if they received the vaccine prior to their start date, said the company.
Correction: A previous version of this story featured a picture of a site that is not an EACOM mill. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
