Putting People First

San Miguel puts front and center the health and safety of its employees, never more so than throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Three months after the first nationwide lockdown in March 2020, the company began testing its employees for COVID-19 as part of an extensive plan to reopen its workplaces safely and continue providing essential services to the public. By July 2020, San Miguel’s RT-PCR Better World EDSA testing laboratory was fully operational, processing over 1,000 tests a day.

San Miguel puts front and center the health and safety of its employees, never more so than throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Three months after the first nationwide lockdown in March 2020, the company began testing its employees for COVID-19 as part of an extensive plan to reopen its workplaces safely and continue providing essential services to the public. By July 2020, San Miguel’s RT-PCR Better World EDSA testing laboratory was fully operational, processing over 1,000 tests a day.

By taking responsibility for testing its employees, the company lessened the strain on the national health system, contributing to the government’s efforts to test and trace COVID-19 transmission. With fewer cases and a rapidly improving COVID-19 situation, Better World EDSA testing laboratory closed in May 2022. However, San Miguel still continues to conduct regular antigen tests on employees, through a third-party supplier, particularly in the NCR.

The company was also among the first movers and biggest supporters of the government’s vaccination program. Our priority was always to create safe workspaces in all our facilities and offices nationwide: to protect our employees and to ensure that our operations would not be disrupted. SMC procured enough vaccines to cover our entire workforce and their dependents, business partners, and SMC support staff.

All told, San Miguel bought over 600,000 doses of Astra Zeneca and Moderna vaccines and donated vaccines and the services of the 160-strong San Miguel Ligtas Lahat medical team to LGUs in Metro Manila and over a dozen other urban centers across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. From July 2021 to January 2022, the company was managing 14 different vaccination centers throughout the Philippines.

Even before company-procured vaccines arrived in late June 2021, the company’s medical team had administered close to 180,000 doses at different government vaccination sites.

By the end of August 2021, we had vaccinated over 80% of our nationwide workforce, with more than 56,000 individuals receiving either their first or second primary vaccine doses.

By January 2022, 97 percent of our workforce were fully vaccinated, and we began rolling out the first boosters to the most vulnerable in our population—just in time for the Omicron surge by the early part of 2022.

SMC’s Mental Health Support Program for employees was established in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with the Groupwide employee wellness program, it is a proactive response to DOLE’s Mental Health Workplace Policy and Program pursuant to Republic Act No. 11036 or “The Mental Health Act.” The program started as a series of virtual workshops conducted by one of our program partners, the Ateneo Bulatao Center, about the importance of psychological well-being and mental health. We started with topics such as “Understanding Mental Health,” with the goal of normalizing the subject among SMC employees. Lighter topics included “How pets can help relieve anxiety” and “How plants can improve our mental well-being”.

SMC took the initiative further by launching the “Arugâ” Program, a Filipino word that translates to “to nurture and provide tender care.” This included webinars and information campaigns but was primarily intended to provide access to mental health and psychosocial support services, such as mental health consultation, counselling, psychological and psychiatric services, through a secure online platform facilitated by mental health professionals.

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