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BERLIN: Germany introduces a new law that requires meatpackers to employ staff directly at commercial slaughterhouses instead of outsourcing to prevent additional coronavirus outbreaks aggravated by poor operating conditions, showed a bill on Wednesday (July 22).
German slaughterhouses have been criticized for the widespread use of undertreated migrants from Eastern Europe, with narrow housing and poor surveillance suspected to speed up local coronavirus outbreaks in slaughterhouses.
Labour Minister Hubertus Heil has condemned the system of “sub-sub-sub-contracting” in abattoirs, where subcontractors rely on other subcontractors to get staff.
The bill, submitted through Heil and notified through Reuters, prohibits outsourcing in major industry activity spaces, such as animal slaughter and meat processing. Companies can outsource paints to non-essential activity spaces such as cleaning.
It also provides for stricter regulation of shared housing for workers and a minimum share of annual on-site inspections of enterprises.
The small circle of family butchers with fewer than 30 workers are exempt from the new regulations, which will apply from January 2021.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s locker is expected to approve the bill next week after additional contributions from ministries.
Toennies, a giant abattoir and meat packing organization at the center of a giant coronavirus outbreak in western Germany, said it would rent 1,000 employees directly until September 1 and avoid subcontractors.
The Toennies plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck reopened its slaughterhouse and meat packing operations last week after strengthening fitness and protection procedures.
The site, specifically for the pig farming sector in Germany, closed in mid-June after around 1,500 employees tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak has caused another 600,000 people in the surrounding domain to be blocked, which has since risen.
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