Meat industry COVID cases surge as industry contemplates shutdown
The crisis in Victoria’s meat industry has worsened with another day of sharply rising new coronavirus cases as the meat union warned that a shutdown of the industry could cause meat shortages and would likely prompt panic buying.
Infections connected to meatworks have become the second biggest public health problem in the state after aged-care centres, with a combined total of 32 new cases on Tuesday linked to the four largest outbreaks.
The JBS site has been linked to a major COVID-19 clusterCredit:Joe Armao
However, the Cattle Council of Australia sought to reassure consumers there would be no shortages of beef at butcheries and supermarkets despite the second wave of infections in Victoria. The council’s president Tony Hegarty said the industry had introduced “solid practices” to continue supplying domestic and international markets.
“When plants have shut down, our industry partners in the processing sector have enacted strict protocols to effectively isolate the problem, stopping further spread of the virus,” Mr Hegarty said.
The clusters at plants linked to Bertocchi, JBS, Somerville Retail Services in Melbourne’s north and west and the Australian Lamb Company in Colac have followed a pattern set overseas where meatworks have become a significant source of COVID-19 cases. The new cases follow an earlier large outbreak at Cedar Meats.
The number of cases at Bertocchi in Thomastown has surged from 10 to 89 in five days while dozens of workers at JBS in Brooklyn temporarily walked off the job on Tuesday amid safety concerns. JBS in Brooklyn has 76 confirmed cases, Somerville Retail Services has 99 cases, and 50 have been linked to the Australian Lamb Company.
Australian Meat Industry Employees Union state secretary Paul Conway said talk the industry might be shut down had created “a lot of apprehension”.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday that high-risk industries could be shut if coronavirus outbreaks continued to emerge and "we continue to see people attending work [while sick]. That’s not the position at the moment.”
However, Mr Conway said he did "not believe for a moment that would actually happen. There are a number of operators at the moment that have still recorded zero cases”. If the industry did shut, however, meat shortages could follow for consumers, which would likely lead to panic buying.
Mr Conway said many workers, who had been at plants already temporarily shut down, had run down leave and would be badly hit by closures, with risks to their mental health.
“How are they going to get paid through that period? I can't see how shutting down an industry will help the mental wellbeing of meat workers.”
The workplace outbreaks have drawn attention to high levels of insecure work including employees without paid sick leave entitlements. The Victorian government has offered one-off $1500 payments to workers without an income or paid sick leave.
The biggest outbreak in regional Victoria is linked to the Australian Lamb Company in Colac, which employs about 700 workers. On Tuesday the company told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald it was “intensifying its efforts” to protect its Colac employees and the community.
A company spokesman said accommodation had been provided for a small number of workers who could not quarantine properly. He said the company had also provided about 60 care packages for some employees.
The company confirmed its Colac abattoir had closed on July 17 and all asymptomatic employees agreed to be tested after a contracted meat inspector tested positive. It is now being deep cleaned and about 570 employees and contractors were tested again on Monday.
The Australian Lamb Company in Colac. The abattoir has become regional Victoria's biggest coronavirus cluster.Credit:Jason South
It comes as cold store workers at JBS in Brooklyn returned to work on Tuesday after earlier refusing to start a shift after concerns over a large number of coronavirus cases linked to the plant. About 45 workers met at JBS in Brooklyn before 5am on Tuesday and decided they would not start work but after talks and some changes to work practices agreed to return later in the day.
The Brooklyn site of JBS, which employs more than 1200 people, had been closed for two weeks.
United Workers Union Victorian secretary Susie Allison said workers had returned to work later in the day after constructive talks with senior management. She said JBS had agreed to changes to work practices including breaks between shifts to reduce infection risk."
A JBS spokesman said a WorkSafe inspector attended the site and did a site check.
The spokesman said it had “engaged in good faith with UWU at all stages of this pandemic – responding constructively to their every request for meetings and information.”
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