The AVR in coronavirus times

"Stronger together": our motto also applies to the Roche Employees' Association (AVR) in coronavirus times. President Adnan Tanglay, Vice President Gernot Scharf and Treasurer Andreas Winkler regularly participate in the Roche Corona Update calls organised by Human Resources, Pharma Site Communications and the Legal department. These calls are held every one to two weeks after the information sessions of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. The topics of discussion in these videoconferences are the currently applicable precautionary measures and how they affect Roche. "We have to think about what these measures mean for our employees and what specific steps we can take to implement them," Scharf says. To cite just one example: may an employee working from home record eight hours as working time if they are minding their children at the same time? The answer is: yes.

A recently discussed topic was the phasing out of the lockdown: all Roche employees should return to their workplace in stages. Here, too, there are plenty of matters to flesh out and decide: what are the business-critical functions? What about the risk groups? Do we even know which people these groups comprise? The AVR also frequently receives questions directly from employees. One person wanted to know whether they needed to pay for their Roche parking space during the home office phase.

But the AVR also has its daily business to attend to, which includes providing its opinions on transformations. Thanks to the AVR's efforts, no terminations can be served via videoconference during the coronavirus pandemic. Employees affected by a transformation are informed verbally in advance so they can focus on their reorientation early on. In addition, the AVR also continues to hold its employee counselling sessions, on a virtual basis.