Sealy battles bedwetting

Bart Chan, Gleaner Writer

When large puddles appear in the car park of Sealy Mattress, the employees begin to worry.

"When it rains hard the drains back up and the car park turns into a lake, then we have to barricade the door," Kevin White told The Gleaner yesterday.

White, an assistant marketing director at Sealy, said: "The most serious flooding damage the office, it ruins stock, hurts production, and damage our raw materials."

Sealy Mattress is a factory outlet on Spanish Town Road in Kingston and specialises in manufacturing mattresses and beds. The company has suffered from flooding through the years and its employees are fed up with having to cope with flood water.

Frustrated

Denise Marshall, a sewing machine operator, explained to The Gleaner how she "wipes away water until she sweats" when her work area becomes inundated.

Marshall, who has been with Sealy for seven years, said she was frustrated at not being able to work properly when it floods.

Maintenance manager Roy Moore says it is essential that the drains in the area are improved.

"We are an industrial zone, production is key to the economy, and the floods affect output. Improving drains would improve production," Moore argued.

There is only one party to blame, according to White. That is the National Works Agency (NWA). "We lose customers, people don't bother to enter when it floods," he said. "The NWA needs to sort out the drains."

Short-term solution

The employees are grateful the NWA cleared some drains last Thursday and Friday but said it was only a short-term solution.

Sealy warehouse manager Donald McIntosh says he has spent months chasing the NWA to fix the drains but his requests have largely gone unanswered.

McIntosh said the NWA clears the rubbish blocking the drains but leaves it on the side of the road, only for it to go back in the drainage system.

"They've done a mediocre job," he complained.

Yesterday, when contacted, the NWA failed to provide an immediate response to the concerns.