WORKERS:SOME OF the workers at Dawn Pork and Bacon in Co Kilkenny who were laid off on Monday were back at work yesterday, and the remainder are due to return today.
Following the early-morning agreement of a €180 million compensation package for pork processors and pig farmers, slaughtering restarted in the afternoon at the Grannagh factory outside Waterford city.
A total of 270 people were temporarily laid off there on Monday as a result of the crisis in the pigmeat processing industry. Some 45 operatives returned to the factory floor at about 1pm yesterday and it is understood the remaining workers will be back in their jobs today.
"It was welcome news for everyone," said one relieved worker who returned to work yesterday.
"We all had a very anxious few days waiting to see what would happen.
"We were watching closely what happened in Dublin and then we were just waiting for that call asking us to get back to work. When it came, it was a relief - no doubt about it."
The recommencing of slaughtering at Dawn Pork and Bacon also spelled good news for workers at the nearby Kiely Meats and Countrystyle Foods plants in Kilmacow, which employ a further 70 and 30 people respectively.
Dawn supplies Kiely Meats, which is involved in processed pork products such as sausages and puddings, while Countrystyle markets and distributes Kiely Meats products.
"Some slaughtering is starting, which means that we should have Irish pork to process again at the weekend," said Stan Kiely of Kiely Meats.
"Our company had brought in a container-load of fresh pork from Germany to tide us over until the whole thing blew over.
"We did close our plant on Monday morning last but that container arrived around 2pm and we called our 70-odd workers back and started going again.
"We're still using pork which came from the Continent as a temporary measure, but as soon as Irish pork is back on stream we'll be using that."
Mr Kiely conceded that confidence in Irish pigmeat, however, will have suffered from the crisis.
"I think the Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Authority will have to do lot of advertising. People will still be dubious about eating even though they are guaranteed there is nothing wrong with the product," Mr Kiely said.
Countrystyle Foods sales manager Pat Lawless said everybody was relieved that some degree of normality was being restored.
"At the moment, the staff is still working on taking back items from shops as a result of the recall, and logging it in.
"But slaughtering is recommencing amongst the suppliers and we'll all soon be back to our normal duties," he said.
Ger Malone, assistant organiser for Siptu in Waterford, said management at Dawn Pork and Bacon assured her they were planning to restart slaughtering yesterday afternoon - and expected a full crew back in work before the weekend.