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Corona in slaughterhouses: Federal government wants to "clean up"

2020-05-13T18:03:06.813Z


Since several slaughterhouses have become corona hotspots, the working and living conditions of employees have come into focus. The federal government speaks of exploitation and announces countermeasures.


Since several slaughterhouses have become corona hotspots, the working and living conditions of employees have come into focus. The federal government speaks of exploitation and announces countermeasures.

Berlin (dpa) - After the accumulation of corona infections in several slaughterhouses, the federal government holds out the prospect of legal consequences.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) announced on Wednesday in the Bundestag that the Corona cabinet would adopt stricter regulations next Monday. Merkel spoke of "terrifying news" from the meat industry and referred to the often precarious working and living conditions of the employees. Heil promised: "We will clean up with these conditions."

Corona infections were found in a large number of workers in several slaughterhouses - for example in Coesfeld in Westphalia and Bad Bramstedt in Schleswig-Holstein. There, the number of workers who tested positive for the virus rose slightly to 264 on Wednesday, the circle said. Working conditions in the industry have become a focus of attention, as has the often overcrowded collective accommodation of the numerous Eastern European temporary workers.

North Rhine-Westphalia's health minister Karl-Josef Laumann announced a policy of "zero tolerance". "It doesn't matter who the slaughterhouse operator is. We now have to dry out this swamp. The pandemic gives us the opportunity to do that," said the CDU politician to the radio station WDR 2.

However, no corona cases have been discovered at Germany's largest meat processor Tönnies in Rheda-Wiedenbrück (North Rhine-Westphalia). By Wednesday noon, 784 laboratory findings were available. "These findings were all negative," said the district of Gütersloh. North Rhine-Westphalia had previously ordered all slaughterhouse workers to be tested for a possible Covid 19 disease.

The Lower Saxony state government now also wants to check all slaughterhouse employees in the state. Minister of Social Affairs Carola Reimann (SPD) announced in the state parliament in Hanover that this would involve 23,700 employees in 183 meat processing companies. Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) sharply criticized the meat industry. "It surprised and massively annoyed me that individual companies, despite Corona, apparently happily pushed their employees back and forth across national borders," said Weil of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (Thursday). "Such behavior is completely irresponsible".

Federal Minister of Labor Heil meanwhile worries about the working conditions and the accommodation of the mostly foreign employees: "As a society, we cannot continue to watch how people from Central and Eastern Europe are exploited in this society." Subcontracting in the meat industry is the "root of the problem".

Therefore, Heil campaigned to fundamentally think about the currently widespread construction contracts. In addition, the minister advocated nationwide control quotas. Many federal states had saved too much at the responsible authorities to check compliance with the existing occupational safety regulations.

At a current hour in the Bundestag, opposing positions collided. Jutta Krellmann from the Left called, among other things, for a ban on work contracts, clear rules for accommodation and a minimum wage that is uniform across the industry. The Green Parliamentarian Friedrich Ostendorff campaigned for the closure of companies as long as no minimum clearances and individual accommodation of the workers are guaranteed.

The AfD Group's spokesman for agricultural policy, Stephan Protschka, warned, however, that additional bans and conditions could result in the slaughterhouses moving abroad. FDP deputy Carlo Cronenberg also relies on stricter controls instead of new laws: "We have no legislative problem - we have a law enforcement problem."

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-05-13

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