Two of Northern Ireland’s major food processing companies have been hit by staff walking off site over fears around their personal safety.

An estimated 80 employees at ABP’s processing facility in Lurgan, Co Armagh, downed tools on Wednesday morning. This was quickly followed by an estimated 1,000 workers at the Moy Park site in Portadown.

Commenting on the developments, Susan Fitzgearald, Unite's regional coordinating officer called on the UK government to act quickly to protect workers deemed essential to keeping the food supply chain operational.

Social distancing

“Unite has been informed that the workers are demanding adequate social distancing of 2m be facilitated and enforced, and other measures be adopted to keep workers as separated as possible," Fitzgerald said. The union also wants deep-cleans conducted on work stations where workers have self-isolated following the onset of coronavirus-like symptoms.

Basic protections

This was followed by a second Unite official, Sean McKeever, stating: “Up to 1,000 workers have walked out of the Seagoe Moy Park site in Portadown. This follows the failure of the biggest employer in Northern Ireland to provide basic health and safety protections to its workforce.”

He added: “Workers are refusing to return to work in unsafe conditions. This is an entirely foreseeable outcome of both management greed and total inaction from Stormont.

We need to see immediate movement from management to address the workers’ legitimate fears over coronavirus transmission – there cannot be any two-tier approach to health and safety in workplaces. Food production workers will not be treated as second-class."

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