Threat by Foyle Food to scrap £1-a-day Covid payment a ‘slap in the face to workers’

UNITE the union have launched a scathing attack over a threat by Foyle Food Group bosses to remove a special Covid payment from Friday, July 3.

The payment was provided to employees to help meet the additional costs arising from the pandemic.

Said Unite Regional Officer Gareth Scott: “Foyle Meats workers in Omagh suffered probably the most significant cluster of Covid-19 infections in the meatpacking sector in Northern Ireland.

“Despite the secrecy around the scale of the outbreak, Unite is aware that at least 35 people in Foyle Food sites in Omagh tested positive for the virus.

“While bosses have been safely cocooned away, day after day meatpackers at Foyle Foods in Omagh and Campsie have turned up to production lines.

“Although management pays lip-service to the role of employees in ‘ensuring a seamless supply of red meat’ – they are choosing to reward them with this callous slap in the face.

“In recent days, despite extended delays in revealing details we now know of two very major outbreaks in meatpacking facilities in England and Wales.

“In Germany seven hundred workers in one workplace alone have tested positive for Covid-19 and it is estimated that 25,000 workers in US meat processors have contracted the virus in the last few weeks.

“Contrary to what bosses are proclaiming, the risks of a second peak in this industry remain very high.

“Meanwhile workers continue to face additional travel and childcare costs; there is every reason to retain a special Covid payment at this time.

“While one pound a day is meagre and might seem inconsequential to bosses, to their lowly-paid employees one pound a day can make a big difference.

“Workers were informed of plans by Foyle Food Group to scrap the payment at the very same time bosses at ABP Group announced to their workers that they would end a ten pound weekly Covid payment.

“These are wanton acts of naked corporate greed.

“There is a palpable sense of mounting anger among the Foyle Food Group workforce over this latest act of disrespect by bosses.

“Unite is demanding Foyle Food Group reviews their decision and extends the payment.

“There should be no deductions to our members’ take home pay”, Mr Scott concluded.

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