Today with Claire Byrne's Brian O'Connell has been reporting on the continuing issue of meat processing plants and Covid-19 for a number of weeks now. On Monday, he told Claire that it's getting increasingly difficult to talk to workers inside factories, as they seem to be terrified of getting fired for speaking about even the most basic health and safety concerns. TheJournal.ie has reported that there are almost 1,500 confirmed cases of Covid-19 linked to twenty-eight meat processing plants across the country and Brian played Claire some recordings of workers he did manage to get to talk to him, via translators. He first asked the workers if the Covid-19 prevention measures the plants they're working in have been effective. These are some of the replies: 

"They asked people to wear masks but there's no way to be apart really. If you need to push the cattle around you need two people to do that. So, we need to do it together, so the workers will be together a lot of the time... If one person has the virus in the factory, everyone else will get it." 

Another aspect of the workers' condition highlighted in Brian's interview was the fact that output stays unaffected by illness or leave, so if a worker is absent, their work has to be done by those present on the day, making the work that much harder and further eroding the virus protection measures. 

"The company's goal of production doesn't change, so they expect the production to remain the same even though there are less workers. So, we end up doing the work of a lot of workers who are gone." 

Rather than diminishing due to pandemic conditions, demand in meat processing plants has increased in recent weeks. And increased production means increased risks for workers. 

"For a company with so many workers it's too hard to control. For example, there is a piece of uniform that lots of workers are made to share, so we have to put [it] on to do a certain job. This uniform doesn't get washed, so if someone has the virus, it stays there and someone else has to wear it again." 

Even when precautions are taken in line with guidelines, the workers bear the brunt of any enforced isolating: 

"A suspected case of Covid-19 – everyone who lives in the same house together is made to stay at home, but [none] of those people are paid. Every day they check our temperatures, but we only got tested once when it began and we never got tested again." 

The workers Brian spoke to told him that they were worried about working and worried about not working. 

"The company will never stop production and they will never send us home and pay us at the same time. We have to take care of ourselves, because they are not going to take care of us." 

Despite the risks of the virus, the people working in the meat plants can't walk away and, they say, they remain under threat from the companies running those plants. 

"They keep threatening to close the company, so we feel threatened that we won't be paid if they close. We can't afford for the company to close and for us not to get paid. Our lives go on and we have bills to pay." 

The work itself – already physically difficult – has been made that much harder by the pandemic and all the worries that Covid-19 brings. And it seems that management at some meat plants are less that sympathetic: 

"When we go home we are mentally and physically exhausted because the work is so hard and is not meant to be done by just one person. And when we complain to HR, HR says to us, 'If you're not happy, you can go home and we'll get a plane full of other workers who'll work for a fraction of what we pay you.'" 

It's extraordinary to listen to the people Brian spoke to talking about the conditions they work in and their fears for their health and livelihoods. You can hear Brian's full report, including a statement from Meat Industry Ireland, by going here. 

Niall Ó Sioradáin