Business

Union denies allegations over death of Moy Park employee

The Unite union is refuting claims made by management at Moy Park. Photo: Hugh Russell
The Unite union is refuting claims made by management at Moy Park. Photo: Hugh Russell The Unite union is refuting claims made by management at Moy Park. Photo: Hugh Russell

THE Unite union says it strongly refutes allegations from Moy Park that it made "inaccurate" claims over the death of a worker at its Dungannon operation.

The chicken processing firm, in an interview with Business Insight outlining safety measures put in place at Dungannon to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, said Unite's claims around management failures and the tragic death of worker Luciana da Silva were inaccurate and had caused hurt.

Unite's regional office Sean McKeever said it amounted to a suggestion that Ms da Silva did not die of Covid, as the union revealed.

In a statement the Unite said: "The facts are that Covid was explicitly included on the death certificate of Ms da Silva. Unite has possession of this and Moy Park management know this to be true as well.

"Suggesting otherwise in the article casts a major doubt over the veracity of our press releases which have sought to take great care to expose and challenge risks to workers."

Unite says it strongly welcome the health and safety improvements put in place by Moy Park bosses, which put the company at the forefront of the sector in terms of infection control and support to workers.

"But we believe none of these would have been put in place without the union campaigning and the media coverage which surrounded our revelation that a worker had unfortunately died from a Covid-related illness.

"Indeed it must be remembers that at one stage hundreds of workers felt strongly enough to walk off the lines at Moy Park in protest at the absence of infection controls."