2 Sisters has closed its poultry processing plant at Llangefni for two weeks after staff fell sick with COVID-19 and others had to self isolate on government advice.
The company said halting production was “the right thing”.
The first reported positive case of COVID-19 at Llangefni was 28 May. Last week, it was reported three staff members had contracted the disease and 40 others were isolating. The site employs 560 people.
The site had instigated a full ‘safe ways of working’ action plan from early March to keep all colleagues safe.
In a statement, a company spokesperson said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of our colleagues is ultimately the thing that matters most at our business. We are a responsible company with people at its core. Without our people we are nothing.
“Therefore in light of the current COVID-19 cases at our Llangefni site, we have decided to take the necessary action to clearly demonstrate how seriously we take this issue by doing the right thing.
“Doing the right thing means from today (Thursday June 18th) we will temporarily suspend production at our Llangefni site with immediate effect for a period of 14 days.
“We will not tolerate any unnecessary risks – however small – for our existing loyal workforce at the facility.
“We have worked in close collaboration in the past week with Public Health Wales, Anglesey Council, the Health & Safety Executive, the FSA and the Unite union who have all offered great advice, scientific knowledge and support, and we thank them for their help and guidance, which has informed this decision.
“Our sole focus now is to ensure we support all our colleagues through this time and look forward to operating safely and securely in 14 days’ time.”
All products due to be processed will now be transferred to other company locations for the 14-day period until the July 2nd restart. This site primarily supplies business-to-business and ‘white label’ food service customers. It does not supply retail or branded food service customers.