Meat plant staff taking Calpol to hide symptoms at work, says Kelly

Meat processing plant employees are taking paracetamol or Calpol to hide their temperature because they face a stark choice of going to work with Covid-19 symptoms or not getting paid, the Dáil was warned.

Labour Party leader Alan Kelly called on the Government to accept legislation he had introduced to provide sick leave and parental leave for parents.

Warning of the need to regulate the meat processing industry where there are currently 1,500 cases of coronavirus, Mr Kelly said Ireland was one of just five EU countries along with Cyprus, Denmark, Greece and Portugal that does not provide this leave on a statutory basis.

He said the acting chief medical officer and the director general of the HSE had both called for the introduction of such legislation for low-paid non-permanent workers who did not have these rights.

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Appealing to Taoiseach Micheál Martin to give his “whole-hearted support” for his Bill, the Tipperary TD said: “We cannot have a situation where workers going into meat plants or other settings take paracetamol or Calpol to hide their temperature.

“If they have a choice between going to work with a symptom of Covid or not getting paid, that is stark. It needs to be eliminated for the workers and for society. The Government must do this.”

Mr Kelly said “the Government cannot have credibility if it asks other counties to go into lockdown as it did with the three counties which have done so, without ensuring there is sick pay for low-paid workers who had a very stark choice of whether or not to go into work.

“Of course they should not do so but they would not get paid otherwise.”

The legislation should also cover the parents and guardians of children whose schools are closed because of instances of Covid-19, he said.

Mr Kelly said 30 children in one school alone had to go home and the Government had to ensure that parents who had to stay home to mind their children should “get paid for the duration of the school’s closure”.

Mr Martin said the Government would work “constructively” with Mr Kelly on the legislation “which has many including, of course, financial implications”.

“We have already moved ahead to create an infrastructure around Covid-19 illness payments, particularly in direct provision and meat plants contexts to make it very clear that every worker in such situations will get sick pay.”

He said he took Mr Kelly’s point that the legislation aims to create “a more permanent provision around sick pay and the right of workers to this”.

Mr Kelly said “sick pay is an important issue when it comes to the potential spread of Covid, especially clusters.

“People who should not be going into work are going into work. It is as simple as that. They need to be taken on.

“We need to ensure that there is a legislative provision and a statutory scheme to ensure that workers do not have to make the choice whether not to get paid or to go in with symptoms of Covid.”

He added that “we all know there are many large places of employment where clusters are being created where there is no sick pay”.

The Taoiseach said he accepted the necessity to intervene. He said the legislation “has more longer-term implications for the broader workforce”.