UK meat producers are fighting over personnel
The British food sector is about to feel the hit of the reduced labour force in the market. Some of the largest meat producing companies are desperately seeking workforce to cover the gaps in production, as the domestic market is about to require more food in the retail sector due to disruption in trade with the EU countries and other food suppliers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.
Moy Park announced today that it is recruiting temporary operative workers for its plants in the UK and Northern Ireland. "Moy Park has empathy with people in other parts of the economy which are negatively impacted by measures to combat Coronavirus and we would just like to let you know we are recruiting for temporary Operative workers in both GB and NI across various locations including:
Ashbourne, Anwick, Grantham, Ballymena, Craigavon, Dungannon", said the company in a pubic announcement.
It is not the only company to hunt people available for work in meat processing plants. Despite the financial difficulties encountered over the last years, Tulip is seeking to fill the absent workers in its plants by creating temporary jobs in production for those interested. At the beginning of this month, the company announced that its pork processing plant in Tipton is about to close its gates as part of Tulip's business recovery plan. The plant work scheme comprises 642 workers.
At the end of 2019, Danish Crown, the former owner of Tulip, revealed losses of €28 million reported in the fiscal year 2018/2019 by its British subsidiary.
Tulip was sold to Pilgrim's Pride for €321 million, of which €254 million consisted in debts. In the last couple of years, several organisations from the British Food industry such as the National Farmers' Union or British Poultry Council warned about the workforce shortage that will occur after Brexit. The latest recommendations made by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) of using a combination of skill and salary thresholds will have the largest impact on British food producers, with the poultry meat industry being the hardest hit, warned the British Poultry Council (BPC) at the end of January.
Also, the British Meat Processing Association (BMPA) warns about the risk that threatens the industry in this time of crisis.
There are serious risks to the supply of imported goods that are used in domestic production. But perhaps the biggest threat is the impact of Covid-19 on the workforce.
Meat processing is highly labour intensive, with large numbers of staff working at close quarters. While the FSA has assured the public that infection cannot be spread via food, the risk here is that infected workers cause either whole shifts to be shut down or critical skills to be temporarily lost from the workforce for 14 days. Large processing operations are also vulnerable because Business Interruption Insurance protection does not cover losses or closure related to Covid-19, and government support for business interruptions only relates to small businesses., said BMPA.
Nick Allen, CEO of BMPA said that it is essential that measures designed to protect businesses with fewer than 250 employees are extended to include large businesses operating in the strategically important food processing sector.
"We are also calling for sick pay for people off work with Covid 19 (voluntarily or medically) to be increased and refunded to all food companies regardless of size. The Republic of Ireland provides a good example of how this can work. From 9 March it increased illness benefit from €203 to €305 per week for workers required to self-isolate due to Covid 19. This is designed to encourage responsible behaviour and initial reports suggest there has been no adverse impact on the attendance of healthy workers."
Over the last 10 days, Britain has seen a dramatic shift in demand for meat products. As people stock up and prepare to stay home, the demand for retail products from supermarkets has seen a 20-30% rise while orders from the out-of-home foodservice sector have had a huge drop-off.
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