'Dangerous working conditions' in Irish meat sector, report finds

Vargulf

Almost 60% of meat workers in Ireland say they have been injured in work.

That's according to a new report from the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) detailing “dangerous working conditions” in the meat sector in Ireland.

Bullying
Almost half (43%) said that they felt verbally bullied in the workplace, 11% felt physically bullied and 35% felt psychologically bullied.
Just 37% reported a bullying issue, and of that, 96% said their employer did not take effective action.

Covid-19
A number of meat plants were found to have clusters of Covid-19 during the pandemic.
52 outbreaks have been associated with meat plants and some workers said there has been a backslide in Covid-health and safety measures.

Other findings in the survey include:
*62% of workers said they had not received enough training when they started their jobs.
*90% of workers are not covered by occupational sick pay schemes in the event of injury or illness.
*28% of the workers on the lowest salaries (€12.00 and below) have been working for between four to 15 year Top reasons for discrimination were related to nationality and race/ethnicity.
*87% of workers said that they had not had the opportunity to progress or be promoted since starting in their workplace.
*Not a single worker surveyed said they felt valued.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40089053.html

Horrible to read this article about workers being injured in meat plants right here in Ireland and especially the previous reports about Covid-19 in meat plants.

Another reason to go Vegetarian/Vegan.

Thelonious Monk

Are there any Irish people working in these places these days? You'd wonder how the whole industry would cope if immigrants weren't an option.

I’m originally from the North East and I remember some horrible stories from the local meat processing plant.

I’m going back 20-30 years and can only imagine it was worse back then.

The thing I remember the most is that in the first-second week of December all employees that had personal injury claims, outstanding, were called in to the office. The cheque book was on the table. A settlement was agreed. This was usually considerably less than what could have been expected in any court settlement but ‘money now, no waiting for court, you could lose in court, Christmas coming’ and added pressure meant most people took the small amounts offered.

Seemed like very sly and dodgy dealings.

NcdJd

Unfortunately this is true of alot of food that needs to be processed. Same goes for harvesting of vegetables and fruit, low paid workers from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. Living in cramped conditions.

I know in the veg harvesting business they work extremely hard, long days in all sorts of weather.

enricoh

NcdJd wrote: »

Unfortunately this is true of alot of food that needs to be processed. Same goes for harvesting of vegetables and fruit, low paid workers from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. Living in cramped conditions.

I know in the veg harvesting business they work extremely hard, long days in all sorts of weather.

Supermarkets have made the whole thing a race to the bottom now unfortunately. I wouldn't fancy supplying them anything.
Our crazy compo payouts would be well known to the workers too. A payout wouldd be a life changing amount of dough back in Brazil etc

LuasSimon

I dont think any irish person would put up with what goes on in meat factories these days. The poorest people from Bulgaria or Latvia who cant speak english are the preferred workforce by greedy greedy Meat factory owners and their moral less runners.

Thelonious Monk

NcdJd wrote: »

Unfortunately this is true of alot of food that needs to be processed. Same goes for harvesting of vegetables and fruit, low paid workers from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. Living in cramped conditions.

I know in the veg harvesting business they work extremely hard, long days in all sorts of weather.

I picked kiwis for weeks on end before, it wasn't that bad, I used to wear a weight lifting belt for back support. The Bulgarians who came to Keelings had nice digs, and at least it's clean enough work. They make decent money for a couple of months and go home.
Lots of stories of PTSD from slaughter houses. One of my neighbours and family friend worked in one briefly in the 1950s or 60s, and hasn't eaten meat since. Very unusual for a man of his vintage.

Ten of Swords

Thread has been moved from Vegan & Vegetarian forum to Current Affairs which I think is a better fit, especially as this is currently in the news. Please read the local charter before posting.

Here is a link to the actual report

https://www.mrci.ie/app/uploads/2020/11/Report_Working-to-the-bone_final.pdf

NcdJd

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I picked kiwis for weeks on end before, it wasn't that bad, I used to wear a weight lifting belt for back support. The Bulgarians who came to Keelings had nice digs, and at least it's clean enough work. They make decent money for a couple of months and go home.
Lots of stories of PTSD from slaughter houses. One of my neighbours and family friend worked in one briefly in the 1950s or 60s, and hasn't eaten meat since. Very unusual for a man of his vintage.

Would you eat a Kiwi now ? Just out of interest as I used to pick Strawberries but would never look at one now.

statesaver

Larry Maith an Fear owns a lot of these plants and is well protected by Government. Both FF/ FG.

So no wonder this is going on and a blind eye given.

biko

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Are there any Irish people working in these places these days? You'd wonder how the whole industry would cope if immigrants weren't an option.

How did we manage 40 years ago?

The workers need to unionise and get documented.

Grueller

Vargulf wrote: »

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40089053.html

Horrible to read this article about workers being injured in meat plants right here in Ireland and especially the previous reports about Covid-19 in meat plants.

Another reason to go Vegetarian/Vegan.

Workers get injured daily in the construction industry too. Do you now sleep under the stars?

Thelonious Monk

NcdJd wrote: »

Would you eat a Kiwi now ? Just out of interest as I used to pick Strawberries but would never look at one now.

Yes I love them, I eat the skin too

Thelonious Monk

biko wrote: »

How did we manage 40 years ago?

The workers need to unionise and get documented.

Less options for careers, and life in general. Lower living standard. As it increases it becomes normal for immigrants to do the horrible jobs. I would imagine the meat packing district in NYC was staffed by Irish people back in the day.

biko

Guessing and speculating about the past won't help now.

But you are right, immigration will probably increase because it servers two masters - the profiteers and the baizuo.

The baizuo opens the gates and the profiteers profits on low wages and poor working conditions.

Soon all simple jobs will be filled by non-Irish; fast food workers, filling station staff, cobblers, convenience shop staff.
People will say it's because Irish won't work such jobs, but the truth is they did up until recently, but soon Irish won't even have a chance to apply because either the people working there are working for lower wages, or the are family of the new owner and work for free after school to make ends meet for dad.

I have seen this very change in other European countries and now it's Ireland's turn.

Yamanoto

LuasSimon wrote: »

I dont think any irish person would put up with what goes on in meat factories these days. The poorest people from Bulgaria or Latvia who cant speak english are the preferred workforce by greedy greedy Meat factory owners and their moral less runners.

Brazilian's moreso than E. Europeans in meat processing

circadian

enricoh wrote: »

Supermarkets have made the whole thing a race to the bottom now unfortunately. I wouldn't fancy supplying them anything.
Our crazy compo payouts would be well known to the workers too. A payout wouldd be a life changing amount of dough back in Brazil etc

Are you suggesting people are coming here for work with the hope for some horrible injury that they can claim?

You do realise that the minimum wage, while not great in Ireland, is sufficient enough elsewhere? They don't come here to maim themselves for a quick payday.

Regardless of who they are, where they're from just as anyone else they deserve to be treated with respect in the workplace. I believe in Ireland we have a decent society, and at the very least we can afford migrant workers some basic level of courtesy and decency in the workplace.

whisky_galore

Another reason to go Vegetarian/Vegan.

And now a word from our sponsor, the vegan industry.

Of course, the fruit and veg companies would never exploit poor migrant workers....

dazberry

The brother in law worked as a boner in the 90s, he ended up having to follow the work over to the UK initially and then Denmark and Germany until he gave it up. Seems the race to the bottom here has been grinding along that bottom for nearly 30 years at this stage.

whisky_galore

Grueller wrote: »

Workers get injured daily in the construction industry too. Do you now sleep under the stars?

I was considering not wearing any clothes because of what goes on in the garment manufacturing industry.

biko

whisky_galore wrote: »

Of course, the fruit and veg companies would never exploit poor migrant workers....

Made me remember this old gem. This is just a poor farmer, not a migrant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70jsvEhU9Wo

LuasSimon

One time people used get a reasonable wage in meat factories and it was all local staff .
The meat plant owners then decided to bring over east Europeans who they could pay less wages to and made all the locals redundant .
The east Europeans are exiting it now it’s such tough work for so little wages . Brazilians fleeing ghettos in cities are at it now .
Larry Goodman will send some of his managers to famine camps in Sudan for workers will be the next move to make even more money for himself

BattleCorp

It's not just the meat factories. The whole food industry is a race to the bottom.

Gatling

This was posted on the vegan forums lol