The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Employees of a company where more cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed have said they’re ‘terrified’ working at its Spalding site where at least one person was hospitalised with the virus.
The article led to more employees getting in touch with it being claimed they were told at a briefing yesterday a second colleague had tested positive with COVID -19.
In a statement released today (Thursday), the food production company confirmed it has had more than one case at is its sites across the country, but did not say at which of these sites the other cases were, or how many there were.
Several employees have contacted The Voice, all of whom wished to remain anonymous.
One said: “We are really terrified. The staff have been told it isn’t a matter of if you catch it as to when.
“The only social distancing is strip curtains that reach the chin of the next person. These curtains are not working.
“The management have not taken this seriously from the start.
“The staff are scared. Vulnerable people are still working in there.”
Another employee said: “Nothing there has been cleaned more than it is usually.
“There’s no social distancing in the canteen, people are queuing up to get in and there’s no cleaning between one lot of people leaving and the next lot going in.
“The staff still don’t know who the infected person is or where in the factory they were working. I understand people still have to work but I can’t believe they are not cleaning things better.”
Another anonymous worker said: “The management are keeping everything quiet. There are a lot of unhappy people who work there.
“Another five people are off sick with symptoms of COVID-19 and are being tested.
“Management are saying it’s OK because the people who have been confirmed as having it were on annual leave when they became ill, but I believe one of them was working in the factory last week.”
Tulip say the company continues to operate in line with government guidance.
A Tulip spokesman, said: “We have had colleagues test positive for COVID-19 in some of our facilities.
“We are offering support to those team members and their families, and out of respect for the families and in line with data protection laws, we are not releasing further information.
“Tulip sites employ strict hygiene controls which are required for food processing operations and our sites undergo intense cleaning on a daily basis.
“The government has clear rules in relation to coronavirus and food processing sites, which our entire business is following to the letter.
“A number of additional measures have been put in place to protect our team members providing food for the country during these unprecedented times.
“We are implementing physical distancing where possible, both on the production line and during down time, while recognising the government exceptions to these measures in food processing sites. This is supervised and audited on a daily basis.
“The government has clear rules in relation to coronavirus and food processing sites which the entire business is following to the letter.
“A number of additional measures have been put in place to protect our workers during this time.”
