Meat processors want government to foot bill for COVID tests

The peak body representing retailers, processors and smallgoods manufacturers is calling on the federal  government to supply free rapid antigen tests to meat workers to help keep plants running. 

The Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) also wants food supply chain workers to be treated the same as health workers, with quicker access to PCR test results.

AMIC ‘s chief executive, Patrick Hutchinson, says they have been demanding access to free rapid antigen testing since September last year and if there isn’t a change in policy soon the country could face a food shortage.

Reduced staff numbers have forced a number of meat processors to shut down along the Australian east coast.

He says there are sheep and beef plants in Victoria and New South Wales where up to a hundred people are unable able to come to work, absences that could cause facilities to close for weeks at a time.

“All based around the issue of isolation, certainly from our visa workers but also more broadly because of household contacts,” Mr Hutchinson said.

“If one person has it, then down you go, and inevitably you have to wait those seven days; and this is just going to repeat itself over and over and over again.”

 Mr Hutchinson says the impact on exports and on farmers will be catastrophic if policy settings aren’t fixed soon.

“We’ve really got to start to take a breath here and look at the food supply chain in the same way that we’ve looked at health,” he said.

He wants to see workers in the food industry exempt from having to isolate if they are showing a negative rapid antigen test.

Testing a precaution for meat plant

The country’s largest meat processing cooperative has started conducting rapid antigen tests (RATs) on its staff as it resumes operations this week. 

The Casino Food Co-op’s pork plant at Booyong, north of Lismore, started processing today and its beef plant in Casino, in northern New South Wales, will be back online later this week.

A number of employees are already in isolation after testing positive or because they are close contacts, including the chief executive officer Simon Stahl, even though he is double vaccinated.

“Myself and the family were away on holidays and picked it up, so we’ve been following the protocols and isolating at home until we get the all-clear and return back to work,” Mr Stahl said. 

The processor will test staff on their first day back before they enter the plant, then test as required and perform random testing.

Mr Stahl says it is inevitable that there will be more positive cases and staff shortages in the coming weeks as the number of cases peaks, but he is treating the outbreak like an early start to the winter flu season.

Mr Stahl said the wet season’s constraint of cattle supply was “actually a blessing” for the cooperative and that it had capacity to redirect staff from the Casino plant to its Booyong pork facility, should the need arise.

Daily testing for dairy workers

Dairy processor Norco identified six positive cases among its staff when it started rapid antigen testing today at factories at Raleigh and Lismore in northern New South Wales and Labrador on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Workers will continue to be tested daily before each shift with the cooperative footing the bill for both the tests and the time to take them.

“That’s 15 to 30 minutes overtime every morning for 500 people, it’s an incredible cost of ensuring the flow of essential food items for communities,” chief executive Michael Hampson said.

The cooperative is taking the measure to ensure a safe workforce and is supporting the call for critical food-based businesses to receive the tests at no cost.

Mr Hampson said the shortage of workers has resulted in less staff to pick, package and bottle product, which could lead to significant food waste across the supply chain.