German gov't tightens regulations for meat industry to protect workers

Following a large COVID-19 outbreak at meat processing company Toennies, the German government has reached an agreement on new regulations aimed at creating "orderly and safe working conditions" in the country's meat industry, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) announced on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

"We ensure that employers once again have direct responsibility for their people," said Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil, adding "We protect the workers and (will) end the irresponsibility in parts of the meat industry."

The rules would explicitly prohibit the use of external staff in the core business of Germany's meat industry and would apply to subcontractors as well as labor leasing models from early 2021 onwards, according to BMAS.

"The government is putting meat production in Germany at risk," Friedrich-Otto Ripke, president of the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry (ZDG), told newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung on Wednesday.

According to Ripke, the meat industry required external workers in order to help in peak times of the year to "cushion high demand during barbecue season."

The working and living conditions of subcontractors in Germany's meat industry became a topic of public interest after the large outbreak at Toennies where more than 1,500 employees were infected with COVID-19.

On Tuesday, Toennies presented a "future housing concept," aiming to provide well-equipped flats meeting a fixed standard for all its employees in the future.

Heil stressed that 16-hour days and "cramped living conditions" in mass accommodations were no longer acceptable. The new rules now also require companies in the meat sector to improve accommodation facilities of employees, even outside company grounds.

Furthermore, the regulations would introduce an obligation for logging and controlling working hours with a digital system. The fines for violations of the working time regulations for Germany's meat industry would be doubled from 15,000 euros to 30,000 euros, according to BMAS.