Meat workers stay home to grieve
New Zealand’s meat processing plants have been affected by the Christchurch terrorist attacks as Muslim workers stay home to grieve.
Fifty people were killed when a man entered two mosques on Friday and gunned down members of Christchurch’s Muslim community, who were praying at the time.
Halal slaughtermen work in nearly all of New Zealand’s red meat export slaughter premises, which are certified to undertake slaughter in compliance with halal requirements. Halal meat is exported to Middle Eastern markets and eaten by Muslim consumers in other countries.
Alliance chief executive David Surveyor, of Invercargill, said there were several Alliance staff members who were affected by Friday’s events and the company’s focus was supporting them through a difficult time.
The company had closed the slaughterboard at the Lorneville plant, near Invercargill, from lunchtime yesterday and he did not know when it would reopen. There was the option of carrying out non-halal slaughter there, he said yesterday.
The Mataura plant was operational.
‘‘We will certainly make sure there are counselling services available for staff and we will allow availability for people to grieve and attend funerals,’’ Surveyor said.
‘‘Obviously this has just happened and we have not had to deal with anything like this before so we are just fleshing through what we need to do to support our staff. It goes without saying that the company offers its condolences to those impacted by the attacks.’’
He did not know how many staff were away from the company’s plants yesterday.
Silver Fern Farms chief executive Simon Limmer said the company had been indirectly affected with staff members and families involved, and the company was doing what it could to support them.
‘‘We have rallied to ensure pastoral support for the affected staff and families. We have sufficient cover from our network of South Island plants with staff cover being organised to allow processing to continue to as close to normal levels as possible,’’ Limmer said.
‘‘We recognise the team will need to take time to acknowledge this tragedy and support their local communities, and we are planning for the flexibility this will require over the coming days. Our broader functions, livestock supply, logistics and planning have built contingency plans for this week.’’
Affco New Zealand general manager Nigel Stevens said it would close its South Pacific Meats Malvern plant near Burnham so staff members could attend funeral services when arrangements were in place.
Sixteen of the plant’s 200 workers had been directly affected by the shootings, and he said four had taken time off work as a result. The rest had chosen to go to work so they could be around their friends and have something else to focus on.
The company was offering counselling, had set up a prayer room and had met with all staff one on one, he said.
Processing was ‘‘impacted a little bit but not significantly’’, Stevens said.
Anzco New Zealand group chief executive Peter Conley said the companies’ sites were operating as usual. ‘‘We’re encouraging anyone affected to speak to our professional counselling service,’’ he said.
‘‘We have not had to deal with anything like this before.’’ Alliance Group chief executive David Surveyor, left