COVID-19 – Governor Shutdown – March 19, 2020 – PDF
March 19, 2020
Dear Employees,
Today at 6pm, Governor Wolf called for a mandatory shutdown of “non life-sustaining” businesses.
Although we are uncertain of our status as a “non life-sustaining” business, we have begun the process of
shutting down our business. A few essential areas including our entire Distribution network (including
Topton, Alburtis and Drivers) will continue to work throughout the shutdown and those employees will be
contacted by their building or area manager.
Employees should report as normal up until the end of 1st shift on Friday March 20th at 3PM
or as needed for proper shutdown.
We are doing this in order to shut down our operations in a safe manner.
Employees will receive their pay (direct deposit for those who have it, and mailed check for those who
don’t) as follows:
Friday, March 20: Pay for the week of March 9-13
Friday, March 27: Pay for the week of March 16-20
Your current healthcare benefits coverage will be maintained until April 30th, 2020. We will continue to
evaluate whether coverage will be extended after April 30th, 2020.
Due to the short notice that we were given by the State, there are a number of things we have to work on.
We will continue to communicate to employees via the EPM website and Connections with any further
information.
For employees affected by the mandated shutdown, you should apply for unemployment compensation.
Here is how to apply:
Methods of contacting Unemployment Compensation (UC) Service Centers:
Online: An application can be downloaded from the Internet
The website is: www.dli.state.pa.us
Telephone: UC Service Center phone is 1-888-313-7284
Deaf & Hard of Hearing: 1-888-334-4046
Espanol 1-877-888-8104
Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wed. 12pm-6pm Fri 8am to 12noon
Please do what is best for you and your families to continue to stay safe during this very difficult time. We
will stay in touch via our website and Connections. www.epmconnect.bswift.com instructions for login are
on the page.
Dan Breidegam Chris Pruitt Bob Flicker Christy Weeber
Chairman CEO/President COO CFO
