A month ago, a special ‘booster team’ was set up on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, which makes proposals to improve the working and living conditions of migrant workers. This should reduce the risk of corona infections in this group.
Corona outbreaks again this weekend
The vulnerable position of migrant workers ensures that there is an increased risk of contamination. Also this weekend, corona outbreaks were again observed in companies where migrant workers are employed.
People were infected at two fruit companies in the Betuwe. It had already hit several slaughterhouses before.
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It is not known why labor migrants are relatively susceptible to coronavirus infections. But the way they live and go to work may play a role.
Migrant workers generally live in groups that are relatively large and often change in composition. Until recently, they also traveled in groups in small vans between home and workplace, so that they could not keep a distance of one and a half meters.
One bedroom per person
According to the booster team, temporary employment agencies that allow migrant workers to work in companies with an increased risk of contamination, such as slaughterhouses and meat processors, should offer their employees one bedroom per person, unless they are working couples or people who like to share a room.
Employees who become ill, for example from corona, can no longer be evicted from their home. Because employment agencies generally provide accommodation for their staff themselves, there is no legal basis for taking effective enforcement action against this ‘amoral behavior’. Companies that are guilty of it could be held publicly.
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The special team also recommends establishing in emergency legislation that migrant workers must keep a distance of one and a half meters in the means of transport they travel with. The consequence of this is that transport with small vans is no longer possible.
Deploy coaches
Larger vehicles, such as coaches, will therefore have to be used, so that the distance between them is guaranteed. Meat processor Vion previously decided to use buses, after the police and the safety region found that the small vans were too many people at too little distance from each other.
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Vion initially defended this mode of transport, because the labor migrants would be people who ‘lived together in the same house’ and thus formed one household, just like a family. But the special booster team, like the police and the security region, also believes that cohabiting migrant workers should not be considered as one household.
The groups are too large for this and too often change their composition. Moreover, it is not always clear which migrant worker stays where, which makes checking difficult.
Major transport problems
The advice of the team is crossed by the agency’s bill. They often arrange the accommodation and transport of their staff themselves. They argued that cohabiting migrant workers could be considered as one household, because they could be transported as a family in one van.
According to the agencies, the new measure creates ‘major transport problems’ with higher costs. The final advice will be published in the coming week.
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