Drinks giant Diageo will not be closing its Fife bottling plant during the coronavirus pandemic, despite “a mountain of safety concerns” and rising staff stress.
Unions have called for a halt in production at the company’s bottling and distilling operations across Scotland, including at the huge plant in Leven, where brands including Smirnoff, Bailey’s, Johnnie Walker and Gordon’s gin are bottled.
Unite representatives have written to Diageo senior management outlining concerns over the communal use of workplace canteens and toilets.
They also raised increasing levels of anxiety among workers who are in close proximity to each other for up to eight hours a day.
While the union’s workplace representatives have accepted the company is adhering to the Government’s social distancing measures, they pointed out many staff had to travel on public transport to get to and from the plants.
Diageo said it had stringent safety protocols in place, including heightened sanitation measures, and that it was following UK Government guidance that alcohol production was an essential service.
Unite industrial officer Bob McGregor said: “Diageo workers are demanding that the company halts production at its plants across Scotland due to the mountain of safety concerns being raised by the workforce.
“Unite fully understands that the food and drink sector are essential services but if the safety concerns can’t be addressed then production must stop. Safety must come first.
“The reality is that hundreds of people are working beside each other for hours a day and then travelling home, often on public transport, to their families.”
A Diageo spokesman said the health and well-being of employees was its top priority.
“We again met with Bob McGregor from Unite today and will now ask him to share as a matter of urgency any and all examples where he believes our strict safety protocols, which go beyond government guidelines, are not being adhered to so if proven can be resolved immediately.”
Adding that all employees who could work from home were doing so, he said: “We have fundamentally changed the way we work across all sites and scaled back production in many areas.
“This includes stopping some activities altogether, reducing output rates and changing shift patterns to ensure that all our strict social distancing measures are fully enforced.
“The UK Government has reaffirmed that food and beverage production and retail, including alcohol, are essential services and that the production and supply of alcohol to the public should continue, where appropriate safety protocols are in place.”
