Meat factories ‘warned’ of Covid-19 inspections
Plants given 24-hours’ notice of visits by HSA officials
ALL MEAT plants that were inspected during the public health crisis were given notice that inspectors were due, despite an outbreak of Covid-19 across the sector, it has emerged.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA), has only ever conducted announced inspections where meat plants were given 24-hour notice during the pandemic, a Dáil committee heard yesterday.
Edel McGinley, director of Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), told Dáil deputies: ‘One of the big problems is when inspections are carried out, they are announced. Nothing is found. People can scarper across the floor, workers are told to make themselves scarce and workers are in the dark in terms of the outcome from those inspections.’
Since the pandemic began, there were 1,100 positive cases of coronavirus in meat plants but there are currently no active cases of the virus at plants and no new cases since the middle of June.
Meat Industry Ireland (MII) senior director Cormac Healy told the committee that it was his understanding that advanced notice of site inspections was provided by the HSA. ‘That, by the way, was the decision of the HSA,’ he said.
Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin said that it was his view that unannounced inspections are preferable.
Mr Healy said: ‘My understanding is that the HSE site inspections are taken on the basis of advance notice – that was the decision of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) – it was not under any circumstances because of pressure that we may have put on inspectors – which we did not.
‘The HSA did not want and did not feel it appropriate to arrive at a site where there was a potential proven spread of the virus. They thought it was better to give plants advance notice rather than appear on their doorstep,’ he said.
‘There is a permanent presence of Department of Agriculture inspectors at all meat plants and they are there all year round.’
Ms McGinley criticised the HSA for not acting faster to tackle outbreaks in meat factories.
‘They received a number of complaints over the month of April, yet no inspections were carried out until the week of the 19th,’ she said.
‘Indeed no sector-specific guidelines were put in place until May 15, for this sector – a sector which was deemed essential from the outset. Surely a risk assessment should have been carried out? Surely guidelines should have been put in place.’
Chairman of MII, Philip Carroll, said his members started preparing protocols to deal with coronavirus before the first cases were diagnosed in Ireland and no industry could have been prepared for the impact of the virus. Mr Carroll defended the response of the industry to the pandemic: ‘We have made it clear that several weeks before a positive coronavirus case took place in Ireland, we had a set of protocols that applied to every single establishment.’
The committee also heard that levels of ‘institutional racism and discrimination’ in the health service led to a serious data breach when employers were told of coronavirus test results before those meat factory workers who had been tested.
Ms McGinley described the practice as a ‘gross and serious breach of confidentiality’.
In May, it was revealed that employees’ test results were being shared first with employers before the workers themselves.
The incidents relate to the widespread screening of meat factory workers, with public health officials alerting employers in the first instance in an effort to trigger prompt infection control steps. When the practice was made public, the HSE said it would end.
Bríd McKeown, workplace rights coordinator at MRCI, said some staff only received their results when they approached their employer.
Ms McGinley said it remains ‘unclear’ if new guidelines or training have been issued for staff who are carrying out contact tracing in factories.
She added: ‘Deeply worrying are the revelations made by director of public health in the mid-west, Dr Mai Mannix, while speaking at a HSE briefing on June 5. Her comments reveal a level of institutional racism and discrimination that led to this very serious data breach.’
Ms McGinley called for a taskforce to be set up to look at the terms and conditions for workers.
Labour TD Duncan Smith said: ‘Not only have many employers let these workers down, but the State has abandoned the workers in these plants.’
Ms McKeown said: ‘Of the people we spoke to, 15% didn’t have contracts, 9% weren’t sure if they had contracts and a further 13% said their contracts didn’t reflect their terms and conditions.
‘There is a day-to-day lack of respect and value bestowed, and a huge lack of trust from workers,’ she added.
‘People can scarper across the floor’ ‘State abandoned these workers’