Keelings row exposes lack of regulations

IADMIT it, the first place I saw it was Facebook. And, upon first glance, it fit perfectly with all the other content on there. It had all the necessary ingredients, it was far-fetched, panic-inducing, slightly farcical and, most importantly, highly controversial.

File it with all the stuff about 5G and anti-vaccines I thought as I carried on about my day. But within minutes I realised this story, this tale of 189 Bulgarians arriving in Ireland to work at Keelings, was true.

For once, the Facebook mob had found something of merit to sink their teeth into.

And sink them they did. I too had a go, albeit in a slightly less hysterical fashion. Because this is a scandal, right? Here we are, cocooning and self-isolating for all we’re worth, saying goodbye to loved ones over the phone, through a window, or not at all, while a company which sells strawberries is shipping in workers from thousands of miles away.

That hardly seems fair. Surely the outrage, my own included, is justified? Well, as we’ve since discovered, it’s a little bit more nuanced than that.

For starters, Keelings has not broken any laws. As a food producer its work is deemed essential, it is free to recruit staff however it sees fit. Secondly, and this is something which has been largely overlooked, it notified all the relevant authorities before chartering the flight containing the workers from Bulgaria.

Furthermore, all those who travelled were ‘health screened’ before they left their homes and are unable to begin work until they have been in this country for 14 days, their movements restricted just like the rest of us.

Lastly, Keelings had tried to recruit staff closer to home but had only received 27 applications for 900 seasonal jobs. Those are the facts.

But it still doesn’t feel right. Indeed, were it not for the actions on board that flight, the anonymous Ryanair staff who chose to highlight this issue, we wouldn’t have known about this at all.

Those living in the part of Dublin where the workers are being housed would have unwittingly been mixing with 189 additional people at a time when we’re being told to keep our distance.

That’s the real issue here; the fact that Keelings appears to have attempted to sneak these people in, almost under the cover of darkness. The authorities may have been notified, but our Chief Medical Officer wasn’t aware it was happening, nor was our Minister for Health, or, for that matter, our Taoiseach.

And all three have expressed how uncomfortable they are with companies flying in workers from overseas while the pandemic continues. In essence, Keelings has acted immorally, it has put its own business interests above the needs of the nation, but worst of all, it has been caught.

Because others may have already done the same. We don’t know.

With the lack of regulations in place the system has been open to exploitation. Being ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘uneasy’ about migrant workers coming here is not the same as saying they can’t come.

Now that this has happened there will, of course, be a change in the laws. These Bulgarian workers will be the last of their kind. The terms and conditions for entering this country will alter, arriving for work will no longer be considered ‘necessary travel’.

So in a way Keelings has done us a favour. There had been some confusion regarding flights in and out of the country, boats arriving at our harbours, foreigners coming over here infecting us with both their foreignness and Covid-19.

Now there will be no doubt. No one will be left in, no one except our brethren, our fellow natives, those stranded at sea, in foreign lands, wherever. They’ll still be okay, after all they’re Irish, they’re just like us, they know the score, know how to behave during a lockdown.

Meanwhile Keelings, and other seasonal fruit producers, must figure out how to address the shortfall. After all, those strawberries won’t pick themselves. But unless they offer more than €350 a week most of that fruit will go to waste.

Because, as bad as it is being out of work, it’s not as bad as breaking your back for less money than you’d get sitting at home doing nothing.