Concern for safety of agri food workers

Mr McAleer said: “Following a well-publicised outbreak in the food processing sector in Omagh, my colleague Councillor Anne Marie Fitzgerald contacted the HSE and I have raised the issue with the Health and Agriculture Ministers.

“I have personally been contacted by a number of employees who have contracted the virus and they are extremely concerned for their own health and that of their families. Having to travel long distances for testing has presented an additional burden on them.

“The employees expressed concern at the lack of PPE and the challenges of social distancing due to the noise of machinery in the workplace. They said it is impossible to gain the attention of an employee if he/she is in the vicinity of a noisy machine but that an electronic ear piece would be a safer option.

“NIFDA and NIMEA have developed protocols in relation to social distancing on production lines and food processors are putting in place measures to protect staff. In many cases this includes a requirement for physical changes to production lines, including the installation of screens, use of PPE, amended shift patterns and a reduction in the number of product lines being produced. However, this is not the experience of the employees I spoke to.

“In my correspondence to Minister Poots and Swann, I requested immediate steps to protect these workers; provide local testing in the Omagh/Fermanagh area and take measures to protect the capacity of these plants to continue processing food in a safe way.”