Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has defended meat plants against criticism from TDs during a special Oireachtas committee hearing on COVID-19 outbreaks in factories.
TDs raised questions over factory health and safety protocol and worker sick pay among other issues.
Concerns were repeatedly voiced that the inspection body, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), had only ever conducted announced inspections where meat plants were given 24-hour notice during the pandemic.
MII Chair Philip Carroll insisted that plants had not put any form of pressure on the HSA for this to happen, but that the decision had been made between the HSE and the HSA due to the nature of the pandemic.
Director of MII Cormac Healy went even further and stated that the meat industry would welcome unannounced inspections.
MII said it represented approximately 50 plants around the country and health and safety measures had been put in place from March, long before official sector specific guidance was published on 15 May by the HSE.
They said they remained “vigilant” against a second wave of the virus occurring in meat plants.
“We have reached the stage where we have no active cases, having had a significant peak in the cases around late April,” MII chair Philip Carroll told the committee.
Department verification
Director of MII Cormac Healy repeatedly insisted that new health and safety protocols were being “verified” by Department of Agriculture staff in meat factories.
However, chair of the committee and Independent TD Michael McNamara quoted the submission made by the Department of Agriculture and said it indicated that the Department felt their only role was in the checking the safety of food not factory workers in plants.
In response to another query from Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns on the matter of personal protective equipment (PPE), Cormac Healy said that factories were paying for PPE for workers and is was his understanding was that fresh masks were worn every day or every shift.
He also said the majority of plants were temperature testing staff every day, usually at arrival to plants.
Wage subsidy scheme
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy pressed MII on the ethnic make-up of staff and a breakdown of the 15,000 staff working across the sector was provided.
They said that some 30% of staff were from Ireland, while 50% were EU nationals and 20% were from outside the EU working on permits provided by the Department of Business.
Earlier in the day, the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) made its submission on the outbreaks in factories and raised concerns over worker sick pay.
One specific claim alleged that workers were encouraged to claim Illness Benefit worth €350/week while a company was claiming the Government Wage Subsidy scheme payment on their behalf.
Next step
Concerns were also raised that workers had potentially been encouraged to continue working while they were sick.
Director of MII Cormac Healy said he had heard media reports that workers had taken paracetamol and continued working but pointed out that it would not be in a factory’s interest to have staff try to continue working while sick and risk creating an outbreak in a factory.
MII has been asked to provide additional information to the committee including a breakdown of how many non-EU, EU and Irish staff were sick with the virus and a map of where clusters occurred.
Read more
15 meat factories under ‘active investigation’
Doubt cast over HSE measures for factory workers
Meat factories given 24-hour notice of inspections
Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has defended meat plants against criticism from TDs during a special Oireachtas committee hearing on COVID-19 outbreaks in factories.
TDs raised questions over factory health and safety protocol and worker sick pay among other issues.
Concerns were repeatedly voiced that the inspection body, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), had only ever conducted announced inspections where meat plants were given 24-hour notice during the pandemic.
MII Chair Philip Carroll insisted that plants had not put any form of pressure on the HSA for this to happen, but that the decision had been made between the HSE and the HSA due to the nature of the pandemic.
Director of MII Cormac Healy went even further and stated that the meat industry would welcome unannounced inspections.
MII said it represented approximately 50 plants around the country and health and safety measures had been put in place from March, long before official sector specific guidance was published on 15 May by the HSE.
They said they remained “vigilant” against a second wave of the virus occurring in meat plants.
“We have reached the stage where we have no active cases, having had a significant peak in the cases around late April,” MII chair Philip Carroll told the committee.
Department verification
Director of MII Cormac Healy repeatedly insisted that new health and safety protocols were being “verified” by Department of Agriculture staff in meat factories.
However, chair of the committee and Independent TD Michael McNamara quoted the submission made by the Department of Agriculture and said it indicated that the Department felt their only role was in the checking the safety of food not factory workers in plants.
In response to another query from Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns on the matter of personal protective equipment (PPE), Cormac Healy said that factories were paying for PPE for workers and is was his understanding was that fresh masks were worn every day or every shift.
He also said the majority of plants were temperature testing staff every day, usually at arrival to plants.
Wage subsidy scheme
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy pressed MII on the ethnic make-up of staff and a breakdown of the 15,000 staff working across the sector was provided.
They said that some 30% of staff were from Ireland, while 50% were EU nationals and 20% were from outside the EU working on permits provided by the Department of Business.
Earlier in the day, the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) made its submission on the outbreaks in factories and raised concerns over worker sick pay.
One specific claim alleged that workers were encouraged to claim Illness Benefit worth €350/week while a company was claiming the Government Wage Subsidy scheme payment on their behalf.
Next step
Concerns were also raised that workers had potentially been encouraged to continue working while they were sick.
Director of MII Cormac Healy said he had heard media reports that workers had taken paracetamol and continued working but pointed out that it would not be in a factory’s interest to have staff try to continue working while sick and risk creating an outbreak in a factory.
MII has been asked to provide additional information to the committee including a breakdown of how many non-EU, EU and Irish staff were sick with the virus and a map of where clusters occurred.
Read more
15 meat factories under ‘active investigation’
Doubt cast over HSE measures for factory workers
Meat factories given 24-hour notice of inspections
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